Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III
by Rogue-Scholar-Blue
Summary: Jack and Arcee must stand against one Hero to save another...
1. Chapter 1

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Part One

Sherman Oaks, California

U.S.A

"David…come on…" She said breathlessly, trying, with feigned effort, to push the young man away. "We're going to be late." For his part, David remained happily preoccupied, face buried in Susan's neck, hands slowly seeking the hem of the girl's shirt.

"David…" Susan coaxed again, this time somewhat more insistently.

"They won't miss us. I'll be quick…" David told her in an attempt to be reassuring.

"I'll be _quick_?" Susan repeated gruffly, a hand now raised between them. "Wow. _That's_ really romantic." Her irritation, and partial disgust, clearly evident.

"I didn't mean it like that. I mean, I'd want to take our time, but you're the one worried about being late for some freaking cake." he retorted.

"It's my little sister's _Birthday_, David." She snapped back.

"If it's that important, why'd you want to stop in the first place?" The young man inquired, shifting back completely into the driver's seat.

"Because I wanted to do my make-up and, the way you drive, I didn't want to look like Lady Gaga by the time we got there. Then you wanted to kiss me. I didn't think you'd want to go all the way."

"Well, I sure as hell don't want to _now_." David replied stiffly.

"Fine. Then let's go please." Heatedly the girl turned to look out the passenger side window, arms crossed.

"Fine…" David answered, muttering under his breath as he reached for the ignition.

Then the ground of the parking lot several feet in front of David's Shelby Cobra exploded, the air filled with shattered concrete, smoke, and flame. Susan screamed loudly, both instinctively trying to seek cover under the dashboard.

"Oh my God! What's was that? Was that a bomb? Is it Terrorists?" Susan's yelling inquiries were met only by David's shocked expression. Fumbling for words, he managed an, "I…I don't know."

After a moment, both recovered enough to steal a glance out the front windshield.

The debris cloud caused by the explosion, or, rather, the collision, had already dissipated. Through the smoke that continued to rise from the freshly made crater ahead of them, Susan thought she could see…something. Something large. Something moving.

"David…let's go. Let's go…"

With a silent nod, mouth agape, David fumbled for the ignition once more. The car had yet to start when an audible impact, heavy metal on concrete, reverberated out from the impact site towards the two in the vehicle. As the pair looked on in terror a massive, bipedal figure rose from the depths of the crater, lifting itself over the rim, rising to it's full height.

Neither teen could see exactly what the massive figure was. However, they could hear it, a strange mechanical sound, like sparking wires and radio static.

"David…David!" Susan screamed.

Shaken from his terrified state, David hit the ignition. At once the car rumbled to life, drawing the full attention of the new arrival. All at once the couple beheld the otherworldly entity before them. Nearly two stories tall, the humanoid machine gazed at them, it's azure eyes aglow.

"What…the…f…" David managed before the car was suddenly awash with a red beam of light, sweeping back and forth across the body of the vehicle. Panicked, David slammed on the gas, rocketing the car forward, straight towards the alien robot, nearly taking the car right into the freshly made breach in the parking lot.

Before the teens could crash down, however, the vehicle seemed to suddenly jump, slipping sideways on screeching tires, narrowly missing the crater. Still trying to recover, David kept the pedal to the floor, speeding away from the walking machine like a bat out of hell.

In their wake, the new arrival had begun to change, it's humanoid appearance shifting as alloy plates, gears, and servo-powered joints realigned, altering the Cybertronian's form. Several seconds later, a black Shelby Cobra sat idle beside the crater. The vehicle form roared to life.

Already, internal sensors began scanning the area for what it would need next. Rolling back from the impact site, the Cybertronian seemed to regard the recently departed human couple, their subsequent reaction, and how it had nudged the car aside, saving the lives of it's two occupants.

"You're welcome." A female voice said dryly.

Without further hesitation, the vehicle tore away. In the near distance, sirens slowly began to grow louder and she had no intention of being present when they arrived.

…

Arcee wasn't happy. To compound things further, she found she was unhappy about being in the aforementioned sour mood in the first place. More to the point, it was _why_ she was feeling so positively wretched.

Standing on the steps of Jasper High School, Jack Darby was every bit the confident young man he appeared to be, very much in contrast to the moody youth Arcee had first encountered outside of KO Burger well over a year ago. Recalling that first meeting, Arcee could only just feel the echoes of who she had been back then, a relative maelstrom of bitterness, rage, and sorrow. Cliff's death, his first and _true _death she thought somberly, was fresh in her mind, and the cold fury it left in her had seemed like her whole world.

Then Jackson Darby had come strolling out from his horrid, minimum wage job, looking every bit as furious with the world as she felt. Despite the circumstances, being understandably preoccupied with the Decepticon patrol sweeping the area for her, Arcee had found herself at first taken aback by Jack's sudden attention to her.

When the teen had strolled over, speaking about being, "In love," with her vehicle form, it had taken a measure of control not to spook the young human, not just for his safety, but to avail herself of his materialistic affection.

Then he had touched her, running his fingers down her side and across her seat.

Arcee had felt what she could only describe as a jolt, like electric tendrils dancing across her frame. It had not been an unpleasant sensation. Even through all the anger, danger, and everything else, Arcee could not help but realize how long it had been since someone, anyone, had coaxed a similar reaction from her. Even Cliff, over so many years, had never brought out much of a physical reaction from her.

Her lost partner had been dear to her heart, but even in the quiet moments between battles she had never found herself filled with the Cybertronian equivalent of desire. Cliffjumper had been a comforting presence, for sure, but they had never felt the need to make it more. That was how she had preferred it, something he had understood and respected.

However, much to her bewilderment, on a planet in the middle of the galaxy, in a parking lot in a dot on the map called Jasper, Nevada, the touch of a human had left her feeling more alive then she had felt in too long a time. It had been all she could do not to be lost in the moment, silently relishing the sensation. Then she had spotted the 'cons, and things began to move quickly.

Jack, still every bit the awkward youth, had found himself striving, in vein, to speak confidently to the then focus of his hormonal attentions, the local High School's top of the social totem pole, resident popular girl, Sierra.

The red-headed girl and a friend had treated Jack with something bordering polite tolerance, seeing only a social pariah and not seeing anything of the charm, wit, and potential Arcee would come to witness and, almost instantly, adore. Once the Vehicons had made their presence known, Arcee had spirited Jack away for both their sakes. The rest, as the human saying went, was history.

Over the next year they had come to endure a great deal, great trials and tribulations which had forged a powerful bond between them, surpassing the simple bonds of friendship Jack's fellow humans would come to have with their own Cybertronian protectors. Even now, Arcee was unsure when they're deep trust and mutual affection had become love.

Perhaps, she mused, it had been so from the moment they had met. It simply had taken them some time to realize it. Or, perhaps, they'd always known, deep down on some level. It didn't matter. All that did seem important was what they had now. Something so powerful it had helped them overcome matters of life and death on more then one occasion. Something unbreakable. Something that could never be in danger of coming apart.

Which was why, watching Jack share a laugh with the same Sierra who had rebuffed his attention so long ago, a girl who had, only recently, taken notice of what Arcee had watched spring forth from the teen over the last year, Arcee felt so inherently annoyed and foolish all at once for feeling, as best as she could surmise, jealousy.

Arcee knew, in the very depth of her being, that Jack would never replace her in his heart with any other female. However, Arcee could not help but be keenly aware, in that moment, watching as Sierra, feigning being winded by Jack's great humor, playfully pushed at the teen's shoulder, that their relationship had…limitations.

Yes, they had kissed. Lips, or the nearest thing to them in Arcee's case, pressed together in quiet moments, saying in that simple act what they could not express openly for lack of experience with emotions like passion. Eventually, however, that would be the extent of their physical bond. Arcee knew Jack had never once resented being unable to go any further in their relationship. Despite his youth, his hormones did not supersede the feelings of his heart.

"I don't need anything more then this…" He had told her once, enfolded in her embrace, ear pressed to her chest plate, listening, as he liked to do, to the hum of her Spark Chamber. Likewise, Arcee found she relished the steady rhythm of Jack's human heart, her sensors following it's strong beat. She had never doubted the sincerity of his words then, nor did she now. However, watching Sierra find an excuse to brush up against Jack once more, Arcee could none the less be keenly aware of the human girl's advantage over her.

Were she willing, Sierra could give Jack all the things Arcee herself could not. Arcee had, unbeknownst to Jack or anyone else, used the web to study Human courtship, romance, and all facets of what humans saw as love. The emotional contexts she had researched had been easy enough to understand, the descriptions coinciding with her own feelings. It had been a great relief to see that, in regards to the depth of emotions, Humans and Cybertronians where, once more, not all that different. Optimus had so often preached that observation to her and the other Autobots; however, it wasn't until her feelings for Jack began to truly manifest that Arcee had come to appreciate that fact.

Then she had begun to research the _physical_ interactions of human couples. The practice of kissing had seemed a curious enough custom, one she had often found herself musing over, watching Jack's own lips move as he spoke to her about one thing or another. Though she had often, teasingly, rebuked Jack's halfhearted advances, it had been Arcee who had eventually taken the initiative, pressing her mouth to Jack's, feeling those same electric tendrils she had felt so long ago in the KO Burger parking lot envelop her. The look on Jack's face in that moment was one she often pulled up in her memory for the simple sake of mirthful satisfaction.

It wouldn't be until a short time later that Arcee would investigate further, into activities of the far more _intimate _variety, only to hit a proverbial brick wall of shock and general bewilderment. Though she had seen, in Jack's company, films and television programs which had depicted, to one extent or another, the act of what human's called Sex, it had always seemed just another part of the story, and something she had, in all honesty, not paid much attention to. Just another strange human custom. During one particular scene in one of the action films Jack enjoyed on occasion, Arcee had inquired off-handedly about what, exactly, the two characters were doing, watching, in growing bemusement, as Jack fumbled over an explanation.

The topic had quickly died off, Jack changing the subject to a conversation he had had with Raf about Bumblebee getting caught on CCTV Cameras as a car without a driver. Arcee had let it go but had, later, investigated further. What she had found had, to the say least, left her speechless.

Though she would not go so far as to say she had been disgusted by what she discovered, it had, none the less, given her pause. The simple fact was, even had she wanted to facilitate the human instinct to physically _bond _together, it just wasn't feasible. Arcee, her larger physical body aside, simply wasn't built that way. No Cybertronian was. As a species, her race did not procreate in anyway approximating the human fashion. Any attempts to _experiment_, she had decided, would have simply been an exercise in extreme awkwardness and might have done more damage to their relative comfort with one another then she would ever risk. As such, she had let the matter rest.

Now, a relatively short time later, the painful truths about the physical barrier between her and Jack was being, seemingly, and clearly unintentionally, thrown back in her face. It was something that should not have bothered her or brought about anything even remotely resembling jealousy; however, the emotion had begun to fester in the pit of her systems, and watching Jack continue to be pawed at by Sierra was only making it worse.

"Take it easy, Arcee." She told herself, unheard by any passerby. "She doesn't have a prayer. You know it and, more importantly, Jack knows it." Arcee watched Jack make another comment which prompted fits of giggles from his red-haired admirer. "Now, all he has to do is tell _her_ that." Had Arcee been able to, she knew she would have begun to clench her alloyed hands into fists.

"Arcee?" Ratchet's voice suddenly filled her open com-channel, bringing her out from a growing malcontent. None the less, her response was more unpleasant then she had intended.

"What?" She replied irritably. Ratchet's subsequent pause was almost audible before the Autobot medic, clearing his voice in an attempt to regain some measure of composure, continued.

"Agent Fowler has contacted us about a possible Cybertronian encounter involving civilians. He has asked us to investigate in conjunction with the local Task Force division." Ratchet explained. "Optimus is currently investigating a possible Energon source in the Colorado Rockies. And with both Raf and Miko required to be home at present, that leaves…"

"Yeah, I got it." Arcee replied. "Send me the data, and stand-by to Ground-Bridge us to the location."

"Understood." Ratchet acknowledged curtly. Arcee sighed, feeling instantly guilty. As the Autobot's second in command, she expected better of herself, as did Ratchet. She would apologize to him later. For now, there was a certain human teen who's charm was wearing thin. Thinking to contact Jack's cell as a means of pulling him away from Sierra, Arcee, perhaps not in the most professional frame of mind, had a better idea. Or, at least, a much more satisfying one.

…

"So, she says, "What do you mean it's not a stick shift? Then what have I been grabbing?"

"Oh my god. That's so wrong…"

"It's not my joke, I swear. Besides, you asked, so AH!"

Jack, hands cupped to his ears, Sierra likewise following suit, tried to trace the source of the piecing shriek now blaring across the High-School's front parking zone. Around them, other teens, and even the occasional faculty member heading home for the day had, likewise, covered their ears.

"Is that someone's alarm?" Sierra yelled.

"What?" Jack asked in response, unable to do much except watch Sierra mouth words he could barely hear.

"Car! Alarm!" She screamed.

"No one's Alarm could be that…!" Jack ventured before stopping short. Despite the growing sense of embarrassment forming in his stomach, he was suddenly, and keenly, aware of where the alarm was coming from. Rushing down the steps, Jack moved to Arcee, seeing the flashing light on her display. Feeling the eyes of more then Sierra on him, Jack hit the button. At once, the sound ceased.

Across the front of the school, students and teachers released covered ears, glowering at the teen as they did so.

"Nice one, Darby!" Came a shout. "Jesus, man. If I'm deaf I'm going to sue your a…" Came another.

"Mr. Darby." Stepping down the short flight of stairs was Mr. Lenard, Jack's History teacher. "Students may be allowed to have their own vehicles on school property, but not as personal loud speakers."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lenard. I…swear, I didn't know the alarm could be that loud." Jack gazed down at Arcee, knowing his partner could see him via her mirrors. "I don't know what's wrong with her."

"Her?" The teacher asked, looking somewhat curious.

"Sorry, sir. Bad habit. I'll get my _motorcycle _checked out. This won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't, Mr. Darby. I'd hate to have to report something like this to the Principle."

"Yes. I mean, no, sir, I wouldn't want that either."

With a nod, the teacher was gone, leaving Jack under the scornful gaze of his peers.

"Well, I, uh, better get going Jack." Sierra said from her step. "I guess I'll see you."

"Yeah. Later." Jack replied, watching the girl retreat to the safety of her circle of friends atop the stairs.

With everyone out of earshot, Arcee simply asked, "Can we go?"

Jack, eyes wide with disbelief at the complete lack of guilt in Arcee's tone, tried to find something scathing to say, but knew an angry tirade would just garner the attention of those still watching him from the front of the school.

Feeling that he had been put under the spotlight enough for the day, Jack simply pulled on his helmet, swinging a leg over Arcee's seat. He had barely gotten hold of the steering handles when Arcee roared back, accelerating with enough sudden force to leave him using a death grip.

The subsequent speedy ride down the street and onto the Interstate, heading for the desert, was understandably chilly. When, at last, the pair where beyond the notice of drivers who might take interest in a teen yelling at his motorcycle, Jack did not attempt to hide his outrage.

"What the hell was that, Arcee?" Jack inquired heatedly. "Were you trying to get me detention for a month? Or you banned from the parking lot?"

"Wouldn't be so bad. Maybe _Sierra_ could keep an eye on you." Arcee said coldly, instantly regretting how petulant the statement sounded. _'Damn it, I'm better then this…'_ She berated herself silently.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jack asked her, at a loss.

"Nothing. Never mind." She answered, wanting, more then anything, to shift both their attention to the information Ratchet had sent her. "We've got a mission. One that's taking us on a bit of road trip."

Having reviewed the data-packet while speeding towards the desert Bridge out point, Arcee used her display to provide Jack with the visual brief.

"Half an hour ago, a call came in from private security for a Mall in Sherman Oaks, California. They say something touched down in the parking lot outside. Thankfully, the place was mostly empty since the Mall is closed for renovations."

"You said _mostly_ empty?" Jack inquired, reading the transcript of the police report that had appeared on the screen.

"Yeah. There was a vehicle in the parking lot, bit ways from the entrance. The Mall security thinks it could have been a…couple. You know. Parked." Arcee tried not to show that the information in the report had hit a sore spot with her.

"Got it." Jack said, showing no sign that he heard anything out of the ordinary in her voice. "So is that who Fowler wants us to go after? These witnesses?" He asked. "What are we supposed to tell them? It was swamp gas?"

That, despite her mood, elicited a laugh from Arcee. "Cute." She answered sarcastically. "No. They're not the priority."

"So…what is?" Jack asked.

"Keep reading. According to the security cameras that weren't taken out by the explosion, the car that tore out of the parking lot just after the impact? Well, the same car, but a different color, left a few minutes later."

"Oh." Jack said, getting the full picture.

"Yeah. So, that begs the obvious question." Arcee ventured.

"Autobot…" Jack offered.

"Or Decepticon," Arcee finished. "We get to find out."

Clear of Jasper, Jack and Arcee entered the Ground-Bridge.

…

It had taken more effort then she would have preferred to elude the human security forces searching for her. Once more, she raged silently at herself for being so careless. Had this been an operation from her past, she would have compromised the mission, the cost of which would have been unacceptable. Not long ago she would have never allowed herself to be so reckless.

However, the last few years had proven to be so completely 'from the hip' that she had been given little choice. Without access to a Space-Bridge or proper transport ship she had been forced to use a deep space transit pod to carry her across the star system to Earth. What little she knew of the planet had been gleaned from decrypted, though heavily dated, files taken from the wreckage of a Decepticon Warship.

Judging by her visual recon upon touchdown, the planetary level of technology had advanced significantly from the time period indicated in the recovered files. Those scans had been taken during the chronological period on Earth designated 1938. While she was unsure of the current exact date, it was clear it was quite some time later, unless the Human race had acquired some means of accelerating their technological progress. That possibility gave her reason for concern.

'_By Primus, let me not be too late.' _She thought.

The vehicle form she had taken continued to prove adequate for her needs. Fast, powerful, and agile. Just as she preferred. Occasionally she would allow herself to reach top speeds when out of site of Human observation units. After so long in transit, she felt like a coil in dire need of being unwound. However, she did not permit herself, for one moment, to loose focus. She was, by all accounts, behind schedule. She needed to find what was required for the next phase of the mission, and soon. Pulling onto a street, she had gone only a few yards at speed when her scans lit up like hellfire.

'_Target acquired.' _She said to herself, facilitating an old, ingrained habit.

Coming to a stop, she tried to translate the lettering on the glass display set into the building using the dialect samples taken from the decrypted data. Proving unsuccessful, she allowed her sensors to confirm that what she needed was within the unoccupied building. Satisfied, she took a beat, then another, checking for roving patrols of any kind. No longer concerned that enemy units, or human security, were lying in wait or preparing to move in on her, she quickly shifted, assuming her now modified bipedal form.

Tall, though slender, her female frame was slightly more armored then most of her class, these armored plates and braces, now resembling the glossy black finish of her vehicle form, were set over the silver alloy of her polymer skin. With her cranial plates extending up and slightly away from her brow, she had the aspect of a feral biological entity.

The final, and most enthralling, addition to her class was what, she judged, by human standards at least, could be considered akin to a braid of hair. The tight binding of reinforced polymer served two purposes, as a kinetic sensor, providing in the moment combat telemetry and situational awareness but was also an offensive countermeasure. Interwoven with neuromuscular control fibers allowing her to control it at will, and tipped with a Tritanium serrated blade, her braid could quickly become a weapon, joining an already deadly arsenal built into her frame.

Once she had been considered something of a secret weapon for the cause of reclaiming lost Cybertron. Though that time had passed, to any who saw her she was the last remnant of a more brutal time in the War. When even the Autobots had been forced to show no mercy.

Leaving those moments to the past, her transformation completed, she set to work. From her wrist guard she extended a short needle, the tip of which was oscillating at a frequency just beyond the perception of the human eye. The vibrating needle slowly came in contact with the glass of the window, shearing the thick plate material away as though it were made of flimsy paper.

With-in seconds, she had the hole she needed. Retracting the needle, she extended yet another device, this one a tendril of thin cables, each one aglow with an orange light. Snaking out from the entry point the cables made their way across titled floors, up chair legs, across small tables and, finally, found what they sought. Like lovers embracing, the cables bonded with several of the computers set around the confines of the Internet Café.

Though power to the establishment was disengaged, save for a crude, by Cybertronian standards, alarm system, the various cables transferred all the power the terminals needed. In seconds, she had the computers up and running, bypassing rudimentary software firewalls and accessing what she quickly learned was called the World Wide Web, among other names.

Immediately she began searching, gaining a quick understanding of all primary human dialects she initiated multiple search algorithms, looking for the patterns she needed. As she worked she reviewed peripheral data, records concerning all that had occurred since the time period in which the Decepticons had first become aware of the planet, it's inhabitants, and, most importantly to the Decepticons, it's Energon deposits.

It became quickly evident why the All-Spark had brought her kind to this world. Already, they were so much like her own species. She could see it in their history, the potential for great progress and evolution, off-set by a desire to control and conquer. The Human race was destined to repeat the mistakes which occurred so long ago on Cybertron. However, if she were successful, perhaps that fate could be avoided.

At last, after what seemed an eon, though had, in fact, been only a few minutes, she had what she needed. Accessing classified files deeply embedded in servers associated with the Military of the United States of America, the country she currently occupied, she found the required data. Veiled names and references. Incident reports. Cover-Up operations. She had her target.

"Found you." She said quietly.

This phase of her mission completed, she took exactly the time required, no more, no less, to conceal her digital tracks. Though seemingly advanced for them, Humanity's global digital network was a simple enough thing to grasp for someone who had spent almost the whole of their life, century after century, cracking highly encrypted and advanced security networks on a thousand planets across the galaxy. At last, she was done. Stepping away from the building, she shifted once more.

Back in her vehicle form, she was on the move again. With her new data, she had little trouble locating several Wi-Fi networks and connections to use as she sped along. Finding a search engine quite useful, she began pulling all information on a place called Nevada. Her target was there. She knew it. She also knew she could not fail, if she did, then this world, and so many others, would continue the cycle of war that had destroyed so much before, and would yet continue.

In her mind's eye she could see the face of the Cybertronian she had to kill. It would not be personal. She would take no pleasure in it. Feel no anguish from it. For the sake of so many, and for that reason alone, she would extinguish the Spark of the being she loved more then anything she had ever encountered in her life. For the sake of the future, by the will of Primus, she would kill Optimus Prime. 

_To be Continued… _


	2. Chapter 2

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Part Two

"Ratchet." Arcee reported over the com. "We're here. Confirm location."

"Receiving you, Arcee." Ratchet answered almost instantly. "Sensors have you just outside city limits. The 405 Freeway should only be five miles east of your location. Estimate a twenty minute drive to the touch down point."

"Fowler's people already on-site?"

"They've had the area secured for sometime now." Ratchet informed them. "Statement to the local authorities indicates the Task Force is recovering a crashed satellite with possible radioactive material on board. The area has been cordoned off for at least a mile in every direction. Shouldn't have to worry about civilians with a cell phone camera anxious to be on the _YouTube_."

"Yeah. Wouldn't want _that_ happening." Jack added wryly. "Again."

"Agreed. I can still see Optimus's frown in my head." Arcee lamented.

"Well, not to worry this time. Fowler's agents will meet you."

"Copy that, Ratchet." Arcee acknowledged. "Out."

Having left their exit point from the Ground-Bridge behind them, Arcee and Jack wound a course through the city streets until finding the on-ramp for the Freeway. Not for the first time, Jack was keenly reminded of how middle of no-where Jasper truly felt when compared to just about anywhere else in the United States. California, known for having it's fair share of metropolitan, urban, and even suburban sprawls, was a stark contrast to the red and brown vistas of the Nevada desert.

Jack wondered absentmindedly how far they were from the coast. He couldn't recall the last time he'd stood on a beach, the sand between his toes. His mother had taken him on a Family vacation to San Diego when he had been young, to try to take his mind off of his absent father. Having blocked out much of that time, Jack had no clear memory save for what he had seen in his mother's scrapbooks.

"You're awfully quiet." Arcee said, interjecting into his sudden melancholy. "Nickel for your thoughts."

"Penny." Jack replied.

"What?"

"It's penny. Not nickel."

"Whatever. What's on your mind?"

"Nothing worth mentioning." Jack told her. "Don't worry about it." After a moment, he decided to venture down what he knew could quickly become delicate territory.

"So. Are you going to tell me what was bothering you back there?" He asked hesitantly.

Arcee was uncharacteristically silent as they continued down the freeway, heading north. The sun had set sometime ago and the surrounding city was slowly beginning to glow with various sources of light. Jack waited patiently for an answer.

"It's nothing I'm proud of." Arcee finally relented with a sigh. "Something just got to me. Something that shouldn't have. It's really not the best time to talk about it."

"When is the best time? When we're fighting off some new 'con?" Jack contested. "With what we've been through over the last few months, I thought we agreed to be upfront about everything. Leave nothing unsaid, remember?"

Unseen, Arcee frowned. It had, in fact, been her opinion that they be more open about everything, but especially those matters which concerned the two of them and their relationship. Having almost lost Jack, as well as nearly her own life, it had seemed the sensible stance to take. Now, however, it was biting her in the proverbial rear vent.

"Seeing you, and that girl. I don't know. Something about it just…irked me, alright."

"Sierra?" Jack asked incredulously. "What about her could possibly bother you?"

"Nothing." Arcee added. "Or, at least, nothing that should have."

Jack mulled that over for a moment before reaching an obvious conclusion. "Wait. Were you _jealous_?" He asked, taken aback. "Of her? Why? Did you think I was really buying into her whole, 'Oh, you're so funny,' routine? Oh, come on, Arcee. Give me more credit then that."

"I…" She tried, finding it difficult to counter. "Then, why humor her if you know she has ulterior motives?"

"She's not some 'con spy trying to glean information from me, Arcee. After that street racing thing couple of months back, I've managed to get a bit of a rep. She's the local 'it' girl. She has to know everyone that, for high school anyway, is worth knowing. I guess that now includes me, for what it's worth."

"And that doesn't bother you?" Arcee asked.

"I don't really think about it. Those people and their whole social circle crap isn't important to me." Jack explained. "Aside from my mom and the team, everything that's important to me is right _here_." He finished, putting his hand on her casing. Though he could not see it, somehow he could feel Arcee's wry smile in the sudden silence that followed.

"I know." She finally said after a moment. "The whole thing was foolish. You'd think with everything I've experienced and seen over the last hundred or so years I'd have thicker plating."

"Well, I mean, I can't really _blame_ you for feeling territorial. I mean, I am a catch."

Arcee groaned.

"Oh, come on. You know it's true."

"I hate you." She added with a sigh.

"No you don't."

…

The pair arrived, much as Ratchet had estimated, within twenty minutes of getting onto the freeway. Pulling up to the off-ramp, currently barricaded with massive red cones and a Highway patrol car, Jack showed the officer the credentials Fowler had issued him sometime ago.

"Here to consult on the clean-up down there." Jack informed the uniformed Patrolmen, trying to make his voice sound as official as possible. Unheard, Arcee chuckled.

With his helmet on, the Patrolmen couldn't see just how young Jack was, reading only the Federal I.D. and giving him a cursory once over. After a glance of only a second or more, the officer waved Jack through.

Pulling off the ramp and down the adjoining street, Jack and Arcee found their way past another checkpoint, this time flanked by Task Force Humvees, and into the parking lot proper. The area was a flood of activity, Fatigues-clad men and women, armed, stood ready for any transgression, with other personnel, covered in Radiation Suits, taking readings and samples from the cleared crater just a few yards away.

Coming to a stop, Jack dismounted as a tall Hispanic man in a suit moved over to meet them. Free of her rider, Arcee shifted back into her natural form. No one on-site so much as batted an eyelash. The presence of an Autobot was nothing they hadn't seen before.

"Glad to see you two got here so fast." The Federal Agent said as a greeting. "Kind of wish the Big Guy would lend _us_ that portal thing you use. Would make my job a little easier. Might get home in time to not have my wife give me the business about getting back so late."

"Hey, Carlos." Jack answered with a grin, taking the man's offered hand to sake. "Uh, sorry. I mean, _Agent_ Lucia.

"Hey Jack. No worries." The Federal Agent glanced up at the towering figure above him. "How's it going, Arcee. Still putting up with this kid?"

"Barely." She answered with a smirk.

"Well, come on. Maybe you two can shed some light on this mess." Lucia said, gesturing them forward. "I'm guessing your guy at the Silo gave you the skinny?"

"Just the facts." Arcee confirmed. "Found anything since?"

"Zilch. Just more questions." Lucia answered with no small measure of frustration. "When this thing came down, it took out the Security Cams and the streetlamps they were on. The cameras on the Mall's westward side didn't get much of a look, and we're working on getting any feeds from out on the street. No other businesses close enough to see anything." Lucia shrugged.

"All we've got is the video of another car taking off and the statement from the 911 call that couple made."

"What about them?" Jack inquired. "Did they really see anything?"

"Pretty much what it says in the report. Big robot thing with glowing eyes." He looked to Arcee. "Sure sounds like one of yours."

"Or one of _theirs_." She added.

"Yeah. Fowler's chomping at the bit over that one. Last thing we need is another one of those crazy Decepticons smashing about."

The trio arrived at the edge of the crater, the personnel there clearing a wide berth for Arcee. Dropping to a knee, Arcee began taking scans of her own, reading for any trace of residual Energon the Task Force's equipment may have been too primitive to note.

"Anything?" Jack inquired, coming up to her side.

"Almost nothing." Arcee told him. "But…there are other traces here."

"Anything dangerous?" Lucia asked her, looking more then a bit concerned.

"No. Low level cosmic radiation, almost intangible gamma. Your people likely absorb more lethal levels of stuff walking down the street."

"Oh, good." Lucia said with relief. "Wasn't looking forward to writing up medical reports."

"Wait. You said _cosmic_?" Jack added.

"Right. Deep space too. Anything that passes through this Solar System has radiation signatures even I'm familiar with. But, there's stuff here I'm guessing only Ratchet would be able to I.D."

"Well, once we've put all our evidence together, we'll be sending him everything." Lucia offered. "Hopefully it will help."

"Don't bother." Arcee replied, getting to her feet. "Ratchet?" She commed. "I've got the scans from the crash site. Sending them to you now."

"Copy that. Standing by." The Medic responded.

"Well, glad to know all this expensive equipment was brought out for nothing." The Federal Agent quipped, shaking his head.

"Sorry about that, Agent Lucia." Arcee said diplomatically. "Have your people send their readings anyway. Maybe I missed something they didn't."

"Yeah, that's _sure _to happen." Lucia said with a sigh. "So, now that that's out of way, any ideas about what we're dealing with?"

"I'm not sure." Arcee replied. "But, if what I picked up really is deep space, that could mean a long trip here from… _somewhere_. And this crater's about the right size for a Transit Pod, even if any trace of it is gone." She folded her arms, mulling over the obvious implications.

"Even with what little we know, safe to say we've got a Cybertronian out there doing only the All-Spark knows what."

"Should we contact Optimus?" Jack asked her.

"Not yet. He's got his hands full, and we really need that Energon. I don't think we're at risk of getting taken off guard here. I wouldn't chance that again with you." She told him, sharing a look with Jack that spoke volumes. Watching the pair converse, Agent Lucia said nothing.

"Well, if we know what we're looking for, let's not waste time I guess." Jack told her, his confidence bolstered.

Arcee regarded the Task Force Agent. "Have your people start monitoring wireless transmissions, cell-phone signals, the works. If this new arrival was one of ours, they would have used one of the encrypted com-channels every Autobot is familiar with. If their 'cons we might be able to pick up something before Soundwave does. Either way, hunts on."

"Right." Lucia said, pulling out a cell from his coat pocket. "I'll put in a call to our standby teams, get them out there looking for that Shelby."

"We'll get moving too. They haven't used a Ground-Bridge, so they can't be too far ahead." Arcee observed. "Come on, Jack. Let's do this thing."

Offering Agent Lucia a final good-bye, Jack took up his rider's seat once more as Arcee shifted to her vehicle mode. The pair were quickly off.

"Might want to call your mother, Jack." Arcee suggested. "Looks like it might be another late night."

"Aren't they always?" Jack countered.

…

"My Lord Starscream?" The Vehicon addressed him from one of the various terminals on the Nemesis's command bridge. "The ship's A.I. has flagged unusual com-traffic on Military Frequencies."

Striding across the deck, ever working to present as malevolent a figure as possible for the sake of simple intimidation, Starscream loomed over the drone.

"What _unusual_ com-traffic?" He demanded.

"Human security forces are reporting an incident on the continent's western-most edge. Mapping indicates the source is a large civilian settlement in the area designated California."

"Well, what is the incident about, fool?" Starscream growled.

"An unknown object has touched down within the human city. Reports describe characteristics matching Cybertronian physiology."

At this Starscream's burning red eyes narrowed. "Soundwave!" The Decepticon leader commanded. Ever a looming presence in the Shadows, the Spy-Master appeared nearly at his shoulder. Starscream had, almost, become accustomed to it.

Clearing his voice, Starscream pointed at the drone and the terminal both. "Were you aware of this?"

As a response, the Intelligence expert played various human transmissions and news report addressing the state of events in California concerning the incident.

"Then why was I not notified by you _at once_?" Starscream hissed. "Am I not to be kept abreast of anything that concerns our great mission on this miserable little world? The arrival of another of our kind would be integral to that, would it not?"

Soundwave merely nodded once. Nearly flustered with the Spy-Master's unwavering stoicism, Starscream threw up his hands. "Then why did I have to learn of this from a drone!"

"My Lord, if I may, one of my duties is to report transmissions from…"

"Be silent!" Starscream shrieked, backhanding the drone without so much as a glance. "Your betters are speaking."

The holographic display projected from Soundwave began showing transmissions, one after another, over lapping, with some being deleted and others being played again and again. This gave Starscream pause.

"You had not confirmed their legitimacy, then?" He queried.

Again the Spy-Master only nodded.

"Well, have you since?" Starscream asked, exasperated.

In response, Soundwave pointed at the now recovering drone and it's appointed station.

"So you forwarded that information?" Starscream ventured. "Next time tell me yourself. I detest dealing with these underlings. They are as incompetent as Breakdown."

Soundwave began playing the human reports once again.

"I've already heard them! I didn't mean do it _now_." Starscream groaned. "Never mind. If there is another Cybertronian on Earth, and they have yet to make contact with us, they may be allied with Prime and those infuriating Autobots…"

Soundwave interrupted, playing an audio recording of Airachnid's somewhat deep, husky tones.

"…_Or_ they might be an independent. Yes, of course I thought of that." Starscream gave the situation further thought. "It matters not! If they are an enemy then they must be prevented from making contact with the Autobots. If they are, or were, of the Decepticon ranks, then they will be made to swear fealty to me."

Moving with purpose towards the nearest ship's com station, Starscream stabbed down upon the console, keying one of the Nemesis's internal channels.

"Knock Out!" The Decepticon leader shouted.

"Yes, my _Lord _Starscream?" Came the Decepticon scientist's cloying, almost dulcet tones. "How may I be of service?"

"Summon your…pet." Starscream crooned. "I believe it's time I set it to work on the next phase of our campaign against the Autobots, and a new…possibility may have presented itself."

"Of course, _Lord_ Starscream." With that the com-channel was silent.

Beyond the Bridge viewport the green, blue, and brown verdant sphere of Earth loomed. In his mind's eye Starscream pictured the chess board he had set over the whole of the planet. Now, it seemed, a new piece had been added. Whether it was his black, or the Autobot white, had yet to be determined. But, for now, the Decepticon Lord prepared to move one of his most important pieces forward, ever towards the glorious checkmate he had envisioned for sometime.

"Soundwave." Starscream ordered. "Dispatch the drones to seek out this new arrival. Bring it before me or destroy it."

Bowing once in confirmation, the shadowy Agent turned about, leaving the bridge, and a calculating Starscream, behind.

To be Continued…


	3. Chapter 3

Transformers Prime: The Ties that Bind III

Part Three

"You sure you got something?" Jack inquired, holding tight as Arcee banked hard into a turn, speeding down yet another side street in order to avoid drawing the attention of any local police. "Could just be a coincidence."

"It wasn't." Arcee insisted. "I've been monitoring local encrypted data networks. If someone was trying to find us, or any information about our kind being here on Earth, they'd search there. And, it just so happens, someone pulled a massive info dump off one of those networks. Covered their tracks pretty well, but there was something that caught my eye." She finished.

"What exactly?" Jack asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Not sure. But, working from that, I just spotted another hit, and who-ever it is just unknowingly broadcast their location from a wireless network. I triangulated, and they're on the Interstate, heading east."

"Well, can we catch them or should we call for support?"

"Both." Arcee declared. After a moment, she had a line open to one of Agent Fowler's Stand-By teams. "Task Force Unit Bravo, this is Arcee. Possible hostile located, moving east on I-15, en-route towards…"

Hearing the pause in his helmet's audio link, Jack gazed into Arcee's display screen.

"Was is it?" He asked her, concerned.

"The route they're taking on the Interstate. Now _that_ can't be a coincidence." She observed. "Look."

On the display, Jack could see the blip representing the unknown Cybertronian, headed towards the Southern Californian Inland Empire, closing rapidly towards an area he was loosely familiar with.

"It's heading towards Barstow? Wait, then…" Jack suddenly blinked. "It's heading for Nevada. It's headed for Jasper?"

"Or it knows there's something in the general area that leads to us." Arcee added. "Whoever they are, they're too sharp for their own good. Time to find out if this new arrival is friend or foe. And, if I have to, I won't ask nicely."

"Got that loud and clear, Ma'am. Tracking data received, moving to intercept. ETA thirty minutes." Came the response from the Task Force.

"At least we know what to look for." Jack observed. "Not many Shelby GTs heading out that way. Or let's hope our luck isn't that bad."

Screaming onto the Interstate, Arcee continued to monitor the wireless networks and GPS signals, waiting for the unknown Cybertronian to tip their hand. While things remained quiet, the pair continued on, hoping not to be singled out for violating speed laws as they pursued.

"This is Task Force Bravo, target confirmed. Repeat, we have a visual."

Still several minutes away, Arcee pressed forward. "Copy that, Bravo. Go radio silent. Weapons holstered unless engaged. Hang back as much as you can. We're closing."

"Roger." The pursuit team confirmed.

The traffic on the Interstate proved, thankfully, minimal as Arcee closed with the two midnight Humvees, the Agency vehicles maintaining a safe distance. Only a few short yards ahead, the Black Shelby GT from the mall's security footage continued on, hopefully unaware of those closing in.

"Arcee?" Jack inquired. "What the plan?"

"Try to make contact." She answered.

"And if that doesn't work, what's plan B?"

"Hope we don't end up on the evening news."

"Great."

Tearing around a Semi, Arcee angled in on the Shelby.

…

She'd been made. The was no question. Again, her determination had blinded her to the barest of mistakes. Somehow, her forays across local networks had been noticed. No humans had the capability, of that she was sure. Which only left one other option.

In her rearview, she continued to track the two human vehicles that had pulled onto her tail several miles back. From the way they had taken up position they knew what they had been looking for. They we getting help, and it didn't take long to discover from whom.

From behind one of the dark Humvees appeared a lone motorcycle with rider, slipping in and out among the other motorists, working their way towards her. The Human rider was of little consequence; however, the motorcycle itself….

While her pursuer was unidentified, it clearly wasn't Prime. The Cybertronian was too small.

Though she had been prepared for the likelihood of Optimus's followers coming to his aid, she did not care to tip her hand quite yet and reveal to the Prime whom it was that was coming for him and, most importantly, what she was capable of. However, given the pursuit, that preference might have officially become non-available. She would complete her mission, one way or another. The vision Primus had bestowed upon her dictated no less.

"So be it." She thought somberly. Coming up on her right side was a lone Semi that had been running just behind her, apparently now angling for it's exit. "Forgive me, human. But you are about to experience some bad luck…"

Decelerating with a screeching of tires, the Cybertronian assassin slowed just enough to bring her in line with the coupling for the trailer, it's contents unknown but, judging by the semi's careful speed, certainly heavy. It would do.

From the interior of her Shelby-form, she produced the elongated barrel of a precision pulse rifle. Taking aim at the coupling, she prayed to the All-Spark for an accurate shot, then fired.

…

They saw the flash of Energon weapon's fire from the Shelby, watched as the bolt of superheated energy and plasma tore through the trailer coupling of the semi in front of them, watched as the driver swerved away from the blast, tearing the trailer away in a shower of sparks. Pulled by centrifugal force, the long wheel bound container angled away and back, right into their path.

"Arcee!" Jack warned.

"I see it!" She barked. "Hang on!"

"What the hell are you…!" Jack screamed as Arcee tore suddenly ahead, directly towards the oncoming make-shift missile. Arcee reared back on a single wheel, giving herself a bounce just as the trailer descended upon them. Momentarily airborne, Arcee's tires made contact with the trailer's side, the shipping company logo now facing nearly straight up as it began to topple, sparks flying as it slid along the concrete of the Interstate.

Focused, un-detoured, and now none to happy, Arcee sped along, racing off the forward end of the trailer and back down onto the blacktop with a jolt that had Jack's teeth rattling.

"Well…that was interesting." Jack stammered. "Nicely done."

"Not done yet." Arcee quipped, her tone hard. "Got eyes on the Task Force?"

"Still with us." Jack informed her, head craned back, taking in the long trail of debris now strewn across the Interstate, much of the traffic already at a stand-still. Pulling around the wreckage were the two Task Force Humvees.

"Good, because they're giving you a lift." She told him.

"Come again?" Jack asked.

"Need to stop this one, Jack. Can't do that with you aboard. Won't risk it in close quarters." The statement left no room for debate. "Bravo, this is Arcee. My partner needs an evac."

"Copy that, Arcee. Moving in." At once, the lead Humvee pulled ahead of it's twin, angling to come alongside the Autobot and her rider. Once close, the left rear passenger door swung open, a Task Force solider already leaning out to give the teen a hand.

"Go, Jack." Arcee urged.

"Be careful." Jack told her, holding back what he wanted to add. Reaching out, Jack took hold of the fatigues covered arm, pushing off from Arcee's side as her vehicle form sped away.

"Keep him safe, Bravo." Arcee ordered over the com.

"Understood, ma'am. Good luck."

Her determination renewed, Arcee poured everything she had into her drive systems, screaming ahead of the Task Force and right onto the tail of the Shelby, the other Cybertronian likewise picking up speed.

"No you don't." Arcee growled. Seeing the Interstate unoccupied for miles in either direction, Arcee went into a slide, shifting as she did, coming into her bipedal form with weapons already drawn. No sooner had she done so then the Shelby spun, it's sleek lines snapping away as Arcee's opponent like-wise took form.

Arcee leapt forward, and almost instantly regretted the hasty attack as she found herself forced to corkscrew in mid-air to avoid the long braid of razor tipped polymer that nearly split her down the middle. Coming down hard, Arcee dodged again, using the wheel mounts of her feet to stay mobile as her opponent, likewise remaining on the move, snapped a sharp kick towards her midsection.

Arcee circled, getting her first good look at the other Cybertronian. She cut an intimidating figure, to be sure, seemingly every line designed to move quickly and inflict a lot of damage. Arcee could feel the dredges of something familiar resurfacing in her memory.

"Identify yourself!" Arcee bellowed, canon out and aimed, a long energy rifle pointed right back at her in kind.

"See for yourself." The other female answered, gesturing up towards one of the tipped points on her head casing. There, though nearly worn away by time and scaring, was the all too familiar emblem of Cybertron's noble faction.

"You're an Autobot?" Arcee exclaimed, almost stunned. "Then stand-down. I'm second to Optimus Prime."

"I know who you are, follower of Optimus. And it does not matter. You won't stop me."

"Stop you from what?" Arcee demanded, keeping her aim centered.

"From doing what must be done. To save us all." She told her solemnly. "Just as I did once before."

In that moment, Arcee's memory was suddenly clear, and she knew at once whom it was before her.

Before Arcee could inquire further, the other female dipped, dropping in a blur of motion beneath Arcee's line of sight. Before Arcee could counter, the estranged Autobot had fired, three rapid shots that tore into the servos in her knee. Arcee felt the leg buckle instantly, and then she was falling, bringing her arms up to protect her face as she attempted to roll on to her shoulder and into the fall to reduce the damage the asphalt would certainly do at her current speed.

Watching her hit and roll, the other Autobot spun about, reverting to her vehicle mode before tearing away, leaving Arcee and the Task Force behind. In moments the twin Humvees where pulling to a stop on either side of her, providing a protective screen for the prying eyes of any motorists that might be approaching from the rear in the near distance.

"Arcee!" Jack called, dropping from the vehicle to move up to her side, his face awash with concern.

"I'm fine. Nothing Ratchet can't patch up." She told him. "I can do a quick fix, enough to get us back to base."

"Do we continue pursuit, Arcee?" The lead Agent inquired.

"Negative. She's far too dangerous to handle alone."

"She?" Jack asked her, hands still probing the three energy blast wounds along her leg.

"Right. More interesting then that, she is, or was, an Autobot. But I don't think she's working for the 'cons. She's on her own."

"Doing what?"

"I don't know. But, whatever it is, has to do with Optimus. She said his name when we spoke, and she said it with such…hatred, there's no question he's her target."

"She's here to kill Optimus? But I thought you said she wasn't a 'con."

"I'm sure of it." Arcee said firmly. "What's more, I know who she is."

"How?"

"Something from a long time ago." Arcee shook her head. "It can wait. We need to get back to base." Cuing the Silo's com frequency, Arcee quickly brought Ratchet up to speed.

"Understood." The Medic replied grimly. "I will have the med-bay waiting for your arrival. Sending Ground-Bridge coordinates."

"Ma'am, local media is aware of the accident and they've got aerial closing fast." One of the Task Force soldiers called from the nearest Humvee. "We should move, ASAP."

"Got it. Come on, Jack." Arcee said with a groan, struggling to her feet. Despite the injury, she was able to shift into her vehicle mode. Jack wasted no time in climbing onboard.

"Bravo, make sure Agent Fowler is given the facts about what's happening. Tell him not to do anything until we know more from Optimus."

"Copy that."

With that, Arcee broke away, the Humvees retreating back towards oncoming traffic, already working up an adequate cover for what would likely be the top news story of the evening.

…

"Better?" Ratchet asked her, using the probe to check for micro fractures that might have gone un-repaired.

"Much. Thanks, Doc." Arcee added warmly.

"Just doing my part." Ratchet answered somewhat humorlessly. "It seems, of recent, I've become quite the expert on patching you up."

"The risk of the job, Ratchet." Arcee exclaimed, climbing down from the med-table.

"Indeed. Well, given your cavalier attitude towards bodily harm, I hope Optimus was successful in locating that Energon deposit.

"Think that might be the least of our problems now." Bulkhead chimed in from the infirmary doorway. "I mean, if some long lost Autobot assassin is aiming for Optimus, we need to get out there to put the hurt on her."

"It's not that simple, Bulk." Arcee told the hulking warrior. "There's more to this then some vendetta. And something tells me Optimus can fill in the blanks."

"Yeah," Jack said from one of the human chairs near the recovery bed. "You said the same thing back out there. Something that happened way back?"

"What's that?" Miko added from the adjacent chair, the girl having only recently arrived with Bulkhead. Bumblebee and Raf remained at the boy's home. "And since when do Autobots have assassins? I thought good guys didn't, like, assassinate people."

"It's…complicated, Miko." Arcee told the petite girl. "Before Cybertron fell we were so desperate to hold on to our homeworld that we lost ourselves to the War, resorted to measures we weren't proud of then, and even less of now."

"Yeah…not our best time." Bulkhead muttered quietly.

"One of those measures was a Special-Ops team called Sigma-6. They were trained and modified to do one thing, eliminate high profile targets among the Decepticons." Arcee explained to them. "During the height of the War, Megatron had far more generals and specialists then he does now. Sigma-6 did a lot to change that. By the time of The Fall, they'd cut Megatron's command structure in half, so much so that Megatron would carpet bomb and decimate whole sections of Cybertron if Intel from Soundwave or elsewhere indicated an S-6 operative was on the ground."

"Sounds like they had him jumping at shadows." Jack observed.

"Exactly, which was the idea. We thought that if Megatron was so panicked about where an attack from the shadows would come next, it would slow his advance, give us a chance to figure out what his end-game was." Arcee told him. "Unfortunately it had the opposite effect. It made him accelerate his plans. It wasn't long afterward The Fall came, and we were forced to escape Cybertron. We wouldn't have even made it, especially Optimus, if it weren't for the Sigmas."

"What happened?" Jack asked, Miko likewise curious.

"When we first escaped Cybertron, Megatron was able to anticipate our exist trajectory. He was waiting with the Nemesis and a whole lot of firepower." Arcee's gaze grew distant as her memory matrix pulled up the images of that terrible engagement.

"We were forced to make planet fall on an uncharted world thousands of light years from home. It wouldn't be the last time we'd tangle with the Decepticons on some backwater planet before we eventually reached the ancient Space-Bridge and came here to Earth. But, this battle, unlike many of those, was not in our favor. The 'cons had us boxed in a Valley. Craggy rocks, ash, and Volcanoes on all sides."

"Ugh. I remember. After the first hour on that lava field, my gears were starting to seize with all that junk in the air." Bulkhead commented, flexing his joints in sympathy.

"The core of Medics had their hands full, no question of that." Ratchet added.

"It only got worse." Arcee continued. "Our casualties were mounting, and we couldn't even retrieve them, we just kept getting pushed back and reigned in. You should have seen Optimus, though. He was at the height of his strength then. The 'cons were piling up around him. But, he also had help."

"The Sigmas." Jack ventured.

"Right. They had pulled back, found themselves a hide up on the valley wall. They were dropping anyone that got close to Optimus with Sniper fire. You've never seen precision shots like that." Arcee said, suddenly touching the formerly damaged servos in her knee. "Well, not until today."

"Anyway, no matter how may 'cons we killed, they just kept coming. Starscream and his aerial units were pounding our position from above and Megatron had the Nemesis adding to the maelstrom from orbit. A lot of us figured it was the end. That would be our last stand even if we knew we wouldn't stop fighting till the very end. Optimus though, he never doubted we would make it. Said it wasn't our destiny to die in that place. He believed so hard that, even at the darkest moment, we started to believe as well. Especially the Sigmas."

Arcee leaned back on the recovery-bed.

"You have to keep in mind that, for the Sigmas, their whole life was death. They existed to kill the enemies of the Primes, that was their purpose. But Optimus, his willpower, his faith, gave them something more to believe in. From The Fall, Optimus said we would find a new home, build something better. Something beautiful. And, one day, we'd return to Cybertron and restore everything that had been lost. Even with so many of us dying in that valley we believed, watching him never waiver as he fought on. In was the most inspiring thing I've ever seen."

"So…what happened? How did you guys escape?" Miko asked, knees pulled up to her chin.

"Like I said. The Sigmas." Arcee told her. "We were down to a few hundred of us, holding back what seemed like a wall of Megatron's forces. That's when we received the word that a transport was inbound. It had avoided detection and was ready to evac us. But, it was several minutes out. We were under so much enemy fire we knew we didn't have a few minutes. We could try to pull back, but the 'cons would keep coming. Unless someone could hold the line to let Optimus and those of us who remained get to the Transport."

"Suicide mission." Jack muttered.

"Yeah. We knew it, even though no one wanted to admit it. We were all that was left of the Autobots. Brothers and Sisters in arms. We weren't willing to sentence any of ourselves to death. Optimus least of all. But, then one of the Sigmas appeared. She was the most decorated of them. I'd only ever met her once, on a patrol back on Cybertron."

"I'd been alone, concealed in an old storage hub, watching a whole column of 'cons roll by. Small detachment of them must have picked up on my Energon signature amid the ruins because they broke off, started coming right for me. If they had found me, forced me to engage, I'd have had that whole Decepticon column on top of me. Knew I'd die. Then I saw one of them drop, just like that. The other three had their weapons out, trying to see where the shot had come from, but they couldn't detect anything. Before they could report back to the column, they went down, one after the other. Pop, pop, pop."

"That Sigma? It was her?" Jack inquired.

"She seemed to drop out of no-where. Heard a step behind me and had my canons out. She was just standing there, Rifle out, staring out at her handy work as though it was just another day. No pride, nothing smug about it. Then she looked at me. Her eyes, I can still see them. They were empty, indifferent. She was doing what she had been forged to do, nothing more, nothing less. It was so…clinical."

"There is a clear route through the ruins east of here. No foot traffic." Arcee repeated. "That's all she said. Then she handed me an Energon pack, and she was gone. I wouldn't see her again until the Battle of the Line."

"Always thought that name didn't do that valley justice." Bulkhead chimed in.

"What did she do?" Jack inquired, still focused on Arcee's recollection.

"She walked up to Optimus, like she'd known him forever. I don't know what she told him, I couldn't hear over the sound of weapon's fire. But, what I do recall the most is her eyes. When she'd looked at me in that ruin there hadn't been anything. I was just another solider. But, when she looked at Prime, there was something there, something that ran deep. Whatever it was, I don't think it's something she could ever put into words. I didn't understand then, but, I do now." She added, looking down at Jack who comprehended instantly what she meant.

Despite their bond, the love between them was something neither could ever express in a manner they felt would be adequate. It went beyond words. Mindful of the others in the med-bay with them, Arcee pressed on.

"Optimus being, well, Optimus, he looked away for a moment, then he just nodded. She looked at him one last time and then she just turned away, disappearing into the smoke and ash. That's when Optimus ordered us to move out to the new rally point for extraction. His commander back then tried to ask him what the plan was, but Optimus just shook his head and said, 'To ensure they're sacrifice is not in vein."

"We fell back, and that's when we saw the first of the explosions. Someone had detonated a high yield charge right in the heart of the Decepticon advance. Then we could hear the new weapons fire. The 'cons where shooting blindly, trying to hit something moving among their ranks. I looked back, strained my optics to see. I spotted them, like ghosts among the enemy, shooting, slicing, dodging. The 'cons were so determined to kill them they did more damage to each other then to the Sigmas."

"Now that was a hell of a charge." Bulkhead said, his voice echoing the deepest of admirations.

"One for the Great Histories, that's for sure." Arcee said with a nod. "But, for the Sigmas, it would be the last charge." She added with a look of deep lament. "Megatron must have received Intel that the Sigmas were in the heart of his army, cutting it to pieces as they did the best they could to buy Optimus and the rest of us time to retreat. He did the same thing to them there that he did back on Cybertron. Pointed every weapon he had aboard the Nemesis at them and fired."

"The ship's weapons practically punched a hole into the planet. The Lava flows from the underground channels poured to the surface. It would have overtaken us if the Transport hadn't arrived. We climbed aboard, and pulled out fast. When I looked back I could see the whole Valley was filled with magma, the whole battlefield had been wiped clean away. Autobots and Decepticons just…gone. Optimus stood on the loading ramp for a moment, just starring. He didn't say anything. Then the ramp closed up and he was back to leading us out of there. We escaped and managed to evade the Nemesis until we made the jump."

"Wow." Was all Miko could manage in the silence that followed.

"Don't think we ever had a battle quite like that again." Bulkhead said. "When Cybertron is restored, they deserve one hell of a memorial."

"The names on that Wall would likely circle the whole of Cybertron, Bulkhead." Ratchet mused.

"Wait," Jack suddenly interjected. "So, you're telling me that the Sigma you fought out there, she's, what,? Out for revenge?" The teen shook his head. "But, Optimus didn't abandon her, the Sigmas decided to stay behind."

"I don't know what she's after. Like I said, I think that's something only Optimus knows the answer to."

"Indeed." Came a rumbling voice from behind them. Turning about, the party beheld the tall figure of the Prime standing in the control hub. It was unclear how long he had been there, listening.

"Welcome back, Optimus." Ratchet said, stepping out to speak with him. "I trust you received the brief I transmitted?"

"Yes, old friend. I certainly did." Optimus said somewhat stoically. "Arcee? Are you certain you identified her correctly?"

"I'm sure of it, Optimus. There's no way I would ever forget her. Took me a moment in all the confusion to pull the memory up, but…I'm sure."

"Very well." Optimus answered. After a moment the Prime simply turned away, moving back towards the entry tunnel.

"Optimus," Arcee ventured before catching herself. "What do you want us to do about her?"

"Nothing, Commander." The Prime answered sternly. "If it is Coatzin, she will come for me. And when she does I will face her. _Alone." _

_With that the Prime was gone, leaving the others to look on, wide eyed and mouth's agape, in his wake._

"_Well, least we know what to call her now." Miko offered. No one else could think of anything further to say. _

_To Be Continued… _


	4. Chapter 4

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Part Four

_Once, I was called Orion Pax. I studied the Histories of Cybertron, of my people, and marveled at the Great Works we had done. And felt the deepest of sorrows when I beheld how far we had fallen. The ideals of the Ancients had been forgotten, the legacy of the Primes lost to the eternal sands of time. Though I lamented what we had become, I hoped for the future, for a path that would return us to the great age of new discovery and exploration, to realize the dream of our creator, Primus, to spread out among the stars, to seek out the wisdom of other races and to share our own in kind. To strive to bring Peace to a Galaxy seemingly dominated by Chaos. _

_I set out on this path, hoping to find others who shared my dream of a brighter future for all Cybertronians. In the least likely of places I would find a fellow visionary, one who wished to change our world. He was called Megatronus, a warrior of the games who had claimed a title once held by an ancient Prime. He claimed he to wished to see Cybertron ascend to a new Golden Age, to see our people reach for the heavens once more. But, in my great joy to have at last found a true brother, I failed to see the dark seed imbedded within. _

_Megatron, as he would come to be known, yearned only to assert his will upon not only our world, but the whole of the Galaxy, to see his power surpass even that of our creator. I watched my brother plunge our world into chaos, turning us against one another. Even more tragic was the belief that I was responsible. Had I seen the true face of my fallen comrade, steps could have been taken to steer him from his path. Perhaps I would have succeeded or he would have extinguished my spark before the power of the Primes was entrusted to me. _

_In the calm before the storm I doubted, uncertain as to the part I had played, or was meant to. But that anguish and doubt would be tempered, and my fears set aside by another. _

_I had watched her from afar, so grand did se seem to one who's caste was that of a clerk. She was a warrior. No. She was a defender, safeguarding our Leader from the enemies that had yet to be reveled to us. Her life was shadow and secret, death more then life. And yet, I felt no fear when I sought her out, nor did I know concern when she, in turn, sought to know me. No one had ever seen her. Truly seen. She was a weapon to those that served the Primes, or so she and her caste had been taught to believe. I wanted nothing more then to prove to her that she, like so many others, was far more then what an archaic class system had chosen for her. She listened, as few others did, seeing the world I hoped to forge with Megatronus. _

_When I saw the wonder in her eyes I thought she marveled at what I hoped to build; but, instead, so I would learn, it was I that effected her so. In me she saw something she believed denied her. Something more. In quiet moments when obligations or duty did not part us, we spoke of what we would build, between us, when a better world was realized. Then…then came The War, and then The Fall. Turned against her own people I would watch the light die in her eyes. There would only come one final moment where I would see, truly see, the face of she who held my spark. The day I would send her to her death. Never again would I stand under the stars with her, dreaming of the future. Or so I had believed… _

…

Optimus stood on the edge of the plateau, marveling at the beauty of the late evening. So often was he focused on the dangers to the planet around him that he had taken little time to appreciate the grandeur and diversity it offered. It a way, the pristine wonder of it's natural world reminded him of the splendor of Cybertron before the fall. The grand spires of Iacon. The Lights of the Celestial Library. The Imposing beauty of the Decacon. The Children of Primus had forged a magnificent monument to their own legacy, and had quickly lost themselves to it.

Now, in their 21st Century, Optimus watched as the race of man followed the path of his own people, ignoring the warning signs of what was to come, believing that there would always be a tomorrow. Had Optimus found this world free of the threat from the Decepticons how happily he would have shared the wisdom of the Primes, to show Humanity the gift it had been given, and how fragile it truly was. Though humans had sought to take advantage of him and his people, of the technology they carried, and had even sought to take it from them by subterfuge and force, Optimus had not lost hope.

For every Human that tried to take what they had not earned, or tried to harm those who had more then they, there were those who found joy in forging something better, showing compassion instead of anger, spreading hope where others wallowed only in self indulgence and greed. Among the humans Optimus had come to know there were none so noble as the three young ones who had placed their trust and devotion in he and the others, travelers from afar.

He felt great pride in having watched them come into their own, each in their own way. Raf was no longer the unsure child, instead he saw only the excitement of what the future might hold. Miko, while still so eager to prove her quality in the face of her fears, had come to care for something other then her own pastimes. And, most impressively, there was Jack Darby.

When Jack had been pulled into their world he could have, so easily, turned away, wanting only to focus on his own ambitions, for the freedom from responsibility he had believed he craved. But, like Miko, he had found something important, something to believe in and fight for. But, like Optimus had so long ago, in finding someone to fight for he had discovered something even more precious.

Prime had long been aware of the bond between his Commander and her charge. Though he had, at first, felt some small measure of concern, wondering if Arcee was merely seeking to fill a void left in her Spark with little thought to how her choice might effect Jack, Optimus had watched them overtime, seen how one gave strength to the other, renewed their belief in something better.

Arcee, so eager for the battle, and for retribution, now dreamed of what would come after and not only the fight. Jack, likewise, saw sharing his life with another and not seeking something only for himself. There were times when Optimus wondered if the joy he wanted for them now would cause them undo harm later. Like all of their kind, Arcee would live far beyond Jack's years. No knowledge his kind possessed could extend the time all humans, despite some variations, had been given, limited as it was in the grand scheme. Though battle might never part them, time, eventually, would. He only hoped that, when such a time came upon them, one would return to the source of all things in the human world with fond memories of life and love, and the other would endure, carrying the flame of what they had built and shared for them both.

Long ago, Optimus himself had dreamed of such a thing. And now, now that dream had come back to haunt him.

She was out there, waiting for him. He could feel it. He did not know for what reason she had come, indeed he could not even understand how she had survived the devastation Megatron had wrought upon her and her brethren. Yet, when Ratchet had told him of Arcee's encounter, and Arcee herself had confirmed it, Optimus had believed without question. He wondered at what he might do when she stood before him. Would he allow her to simply destroy him, was her wrath so justified? And what had she meant when she had spoken to Arcee of saving them all?

The answers, he knew, would not be found standing out amongst the stars. Giving the nightly vista around him a final look, Optimus moved into the Valley.

…

"We can't just sit around and let her do…whatever it is she's going to do!" Bulkhead bellowed, pacing with dull thuds back and forth in the Silo's Ops-Center. "We should have followed him. We should be out there right now, before…"

"Bulk!" Arcee snapped. The Autobot Commander had taken a perch in the well of one of the Silo's massive wall ventilation ducts to contemplate their current dilemma, Jack seated beside her. "No one likes it anymore then you do. But, if Optimus believes it's in everyone's best interests to stay out of this, then we follow his lead."

Before the armored behemoth could protest further, Arcee continued. "Think about it. Optimus knew her better then anyone else. If she really believes that he poses some kind of threat, there's no one better to convince her otherwise. She's also trained to spot an ambush from miles away. She caught us moving in on her today like we were rookies. If we had gone with Prime, lying in wait, even if it was only to protect him, Optimus wouldn't have a chance of correcting whatever false reasoning she's under."

Arcee leaned back, instinctively placing her hand alongside Jack.

"I want to be out there as much as you do, but we have to leave this between them. Love's complicated like that."

"If you say so." The massive Autobot grumbled.

"Well, even if we can not be there to provide tactical support, we can still keep track of where he is." Ratchet added, keens eyes fixed on the massive screen before him and the GPS telemetry data on the display.

"Where is he now?" Arcee inquired.

"Well, he was on the move, but he has since stopped. It appears he is now in the vicinity of Virgin Valley."

"Do you think she caught up with him?" Miko asked from one of the elevated platforms.

"Don't think so. If anything, I'd be willing to bet he found her first. Fitting place."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked her.

"Think about it. The last time she saw Optimus was in a Valley. Though the topography is certainly different, and there's a distinct lack of lava flows and volcanoes, the irony of the location won't be lost on Optimus."

"So, she's like, trying to throw it in Optimus's face?" Miko ventured.

"Partially. It could also be that she wants to put Optimus off his guard."

"Think it'll work?" Jack inquired.

"She's been apart from him a long time. Maybe something like that might have work on the Prime she remembers, but Optimus has been through a lot since then. It's going to take a hell of a lot more to sideswipe him."

"Hope you're right." Bulkhead replied. "If not, Ratchet better be ready to open the Ground-Bridge right on top of 'em."

…

His face was in the scope, well within the kill-zone, the rest of his body clearly exposed. All that she needed to do was pull the trigger, sending a bolt of energy right through his eye or his Spark Chamber. She tried, willing her finger to apply the pound of pressure required. Try as she might, however, she could not. Something continued to fight her, though she could not say what. Had she been organic she knew perspiration would have covered her body, her breath ragged. Once she had killed easily, dispatching her fallen brethren without a care, devout in her duty to Cybertron, Sentinel Prime, and the Council. Now however it was not merely her world she was killing for, it was for the creator himself, the will of Primus giving her strength to do what no other could.

Why then was she filled with such doubt?

In her mind she could see what had come before. How fire and death had engulfed her and the others of her caste. Light, blinding like a million suns, had filled her optics, and then there had been only darkness. In those final moments she had found solace in knowing that her love had survived. Orion, now Optimus, would endure, fighting on to build the better world they would have shared. Having dealt death to many so often in service to others, she would now welcome it unto herself.

But, then something had happened. The vision, and then she had traveled so very far, found her way to Earth to seek out her quarry. But, even as the memories flooded in something felt strange. Her mind felt as if something was missing. She tried to focus on it, loosing Optimus in her sights for a moment as she struggled to recall. Then the voice was in her head again, booming like a Super-Nova. Powerful and overwhelming.

_HE MUST DIE, CHILD. THINK NOT OF YOUR PAST, BUT OF THE FUTURE. THERE IS NO FUTURE IF THE LAST PRIME LIVES. _

'_Primus. Optimus is your chosen. He…he is the best hope for the future, is he not?'_

_YOU CAN NOT QUESTION THE WILL OF PRIMUS. IT WAS I WHO SAVED YOU FROM BEING LOST TO THE ALL-SPARK FOR THIS ONE GREAT CAUSE. THE CHILDREN OF PRIMUS MUST BE SAVED FROM THE DOOM OF THE LAST PRIME. _

'_I…I can not…'_

_MUST YOU BE SHOWN THE FUTURE AGAIN, CHILD? MUST YOU BE MADE TO SEE WITH MY EYES WHAT AWAITS THIS WORLD AND A THOUSAND OTHERS SHOULD THE LAST PRIME LIVE?_

'_No…creator. I remember. I remember it.' _

_THEN BEHOLD THE NIGHTMARE AGAIN!_

Almost instinctively Coatzin recoiled from the vision that arose before her eyes. The Earth stood awash in flames, a maelstrom of destruction that enveloped the whole of the world. Then the flame spread, rising from the surface of the burning world to spread out among the stars. The tendrils of destruction descended on a thousand different planets, and Coatzin watched a thousand different races writhe in agony as they were torn asunder by Chaos.

One by one the worlds were left barren and devoid of life. At last, the wave of fire and death found it's way back to Cybertron, the Homeworld having only just begun to recover from the poisoning that had left it dark and lifeless. Coatzin watched as the flame fell like a tide upon the lights of a restored Iacon, reducing the great spires to ash. The flame tore into the heart of the world, filling it with fire from within. Then, Cybertron swelled, the surface of the world splitting, the last survivors perishing. The explosion that followed was bright, the light of the Matrix blazing for one final moment before all was darkness. Though the vision was in her mind, Coatzin had none the less closed her eyes against it.

BEHOLD THE DOOM. THE LEGACY OF THE LAST PRIME. IT MUST BE ENDED. HE MUST BE ENDED. THIS IS THE WILL OF PRIMUS.

'Yes…I…understand…'

Stealing herself, Coatzin raised the sight, tracking Optimus once more. Sweeping slowly across the kill zone before her she searched. Then, he was in the sights, the cross-hairs settled directly upon his face. Coatzin felt the Spark still in her chest. Through the site, the Prime looked directly at her.

…

In the stillness of the night Optimus had felt it, like a great evil falling upon him, a layer of shadow amidst the darkness. The light of Primus with-in his chest had guided him forward until the feeling had grown ever more prevalent, almost overwhelming. And then he had seen her. For a split second her attention was elsewhere, even from his distance he could see she struggled with something, her aim faltering. Then it had passed and she had once more raised her weapon in search of him. When at last her gaze fell upon him she froze again, once more seeming to struggle with something unseen, the rifle visibly shaking as she tried to will herself to pull the trigger. Or will herself to stop. Optimus knew he would not have another, or better, chance.

"Coatzin." He said gently, knowing his voice would carry in the near silence. "I am here. If you believe my death will right some terrible wrong done to you, then I will not stop you. I would only ask that you not carry this act of retribution to your fellow Autobots or the Humans. They have done nothing to wrong you."

"My…oath…is not…for them." Coatzin struggled to say, the entirety of her frame trembling.

"Oath. What oath is that?" Optimus coaxed, trying to keep her focus off of her weapon.

"I have…seen…the future. Seen what you will do. I can't…won't…let it happen. Not again."

"What have you seen, Coatzin? Tell me, and I can try to help you."

"No! You can only…prevent it…if…if you let me kill you!" She yelled.

"You believe I will be the cause of some great calamity?" Optimus replied, taken aback. "Why would you believe such a thing? From where have you learned this?"

"He showed me. He…chose me, as he once chose you. Saved me from death so I could…earn back my life." She stammered.

"Whom?" Optimus asked slowly.

"Primus. The Creator. I was…dead. My Spark…descended into darkness for the wrongs I have done. But…he saved me. Told me I could live to see our world restored. But…I had to serve him. To see his will done."

"By killing me?" Optimus asked.

"It's…the only way. I…tried to tell him. I asked him…if he was…wrong. I didn't…didn't want to believe you could bring…so much death to so many." Coatzin raised the barrel of her rifle, fixing it over it chest. "But then…I remembered The War. So many. So many died…for you."

"They did not die for me, Coatzin. They died fighting for the dream of something better. They died for freedom and the future Megatron sought to deny them." Optimus, hands raised, stepped forward slowly.

"If I could have traded my life for any of theirs I would have done so willingly. The Mantle of Leadership could have been passed to another. My life was no more valuable then any of theirs." Optimus told her somberly. "But, when I thought my time had come, it was you who said I had to live. I did not want to, for I could not imagine a future that did not have you within it. And do you remember what you told me?"

Coatzin looked past him in the scope, seeking buried memories. She was standing on the rise in the valley of fire once more, the sights and sounds of battle all about her. Standing before her, so noble, so brave, was her Orion, now their last Prime. He had been ready to stand alone against the tide, to allow his people to escape with his surrendered Matrix of Leadership. But, she had barred his way. Gazing down the sight, she remembered her words, speaking them aloud.

"There will…at least…be a future if you…are there…to lead them."

"I would have remained, if not for the look in your eyes. You believed. You placed in me so much of your love and faith, I know I would not have possessed the strength to endure had I betrayed that."

Moving forward, Optimus continued.

"I need you, Coatzin, to trust in me, as you did then. I can help you to understand what has happened to you. What you have seen. If you will but believe in me again."

"I…can't…I have to…" She tried, the Rifle tight in her grasp.

"Please, Coatzin." He pleaded, holding out a hand towards her perch among the rocks.

"Have to be…forgiven." She aimed once more, alloyed finger pressing down. "Forgive…me…"

Seeing her aim steady, Optimus closed his eyes, waiting.

Coatzin screamed, then fired.

To be Continued…


	5. Chapter 5

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Part Five

The alarm that sounded in the base's Ops-Center jarred the team from their brooding silence, everyone tracking the piecing wail to the primary display on the control Hub. Ratchet's hands where a blur of motion, working to confirm what Arcee and the others already knew.

"Optimus is in trouble." She declared, leaping down from her perch. "What's his status?"

"His Energon reading suddenly went into the red. I can't confirm whether he has been injured or is merely under great duress."

"Screw waiting to confirm anything! Get that Bridge open and let's roll out!" Bulkhead exclaimed, already moving for the tunnel.

"No, Bulk." Arcee told him, motioning for the hulking behemoth to halt. "If we go in there guns blazing it might only make things worse. I'll go in first, scout ahead. I've seen how she moves, I might be able to get close enough before she spots me."

"I can't just stay here and…" Bulkhead attempted to argue.

"That's an order, Bulkhead." Arcee replied sternly. "Wait here for my signal. If it's bad, you've got the all clear to come in hard. Otherwise, for Optimus's sake, stand down." At that she turned to Ratchet.

"Triangulate his position and open the Bridge. Get me with-in a few hundred yards."

"Right. Entering coordinates now." The Autobot medic responded, hand already reaching for the Ground-Bridge control lever.

"Arcee, wait!" Jack yelled, having climbed down from the ventilation well after her. "You can't go in completely alone."

"It's too dangerous Jack. You saw what happened on the Interstate."

"Exactly. If she gets the drop on you again, what happens if you can't radio back for Bulkhead?" Jack countered. "I can stay low and out of sight better then anyone else. Plus I don't have an Energon signature for her to pick up on." Reaching into his jean's pocket Jack produced his modified cell.

"I can send the signal if I need to before she spots me."

Arcee mulled that over, her desire to protect Jack at war with her practical logic. As second in command, she was required to make hard choices, even if it put her own feelings at odds with what needed to be done.

"Alright." She relented, trying as best she could to conceal the concern she felt for her young love. "But you stay as far back as I tell you to. No questions."

"Got it."

With a final nod, she turned to Ratchet. "Fire it up."

The medic pulled the activation lever, the Bridge Tunnel coming alive with the swirling incandescent vortex of the portal.

"Let's move." Arcee ordered, shifting into vehicle mode, Jack pulling on a backpack retrieved from a cabinet nearby before jumping aboard. The pair sped into the tunnel as Arcee silently hoped that Optimus was not in as dire a situation as she feared.

…

The shot went high, catching Optimus in the shoulder, the Autobot Leader fighting against inertia as the energy blast nearly spun him about. Hand raised, Optimus pleaded, his voice struggling through the damage.

"Coatzin…please." He told her gently, watching as the lost assassin attempted to correct her aim, her body still seemingly at war with itself. "I know this is not what you truly want."

"It does not matter." She cried, still struggling. "I am but…the instrument of his will."

"You are more then just the tool of another. You have always been more."

"Not…this time." She told him somberly, finger slowly depressing the rifle's trigger for one final shot. Suddenly, she spun, firing into the darkness at her back, the energy blast burning through the empty space Arcee had only just left, the Autobot woman taking to the air.

"Sorry, lady." Arcee told the assassin, coming down with her own canons out and firing. "That's one kill shot you won't be making."

Coatzin, for her part, was already moving, leaping from her perch, dodging between blasts as though the world around her was moving at only half her speed. Arcee tried to track the other Cybertronian woman, but quickly lost her amidst the rocks. Coming down hard, she rolled, then was back on her feet, weapons sweeping the darkness for the assassin as she moved towards Optimus.

"Arcee, what are you doing here?" The Prime asked her, his tone chastising. "I ordered you to remain behind. She will not heed my words if she feels she must defend herself."

"With all due respect, sir, I don't think she's in a heeding mood." Arcee retorted, checking the damage to Optimus's shoulder. "You'd be dead if Ratchet hadn't gotten me so close. Can you move?"

"The damage is non-critical. But, I can not yet leave." The Prime told her.

"Come again?" Arcee asked, dumbfounded. "She's going to kill you."

"She could have killed me with the first shot. She is fighting against something, and it is a thing I have felt. A great malevolence has taken hold of her. If I can but reach her true self, I can save her from this path."

"I can't let you take that risk, Optimus." Arcee answered. "Not alone. We regroup, and then we can try to take her alive."

"I fear by then it may be too late. If we do not reach her now, she will be lost to this…madness." Optimus placed a hand upon the shoulder of his commander. "She remains one of us, and as such we can not abandon her or condemn her so lightly. Had we been able to save Cliffjumper, I would have expected no less."

Arcee could feel the brief pang of regret register on her face before she buried that remorse, turning her focus to the present. "Alright, but I'm not leaving you. You talk, and I'll shoot only if she leaves me no choice."

"Agreed. Let us seek her out, cautiously."

At that, taking point, Arcee slipped out ahead of the Prime, scanning every inch of the terrain before her as she moved. At her back, Optimus chose to instead feel for the same presence he had sensed before, the aura of darkness that had emanated from Coatzin before she had succumbed to her inner struggle.

Together the pair moved through the relative darkness, the night-enhancing capability of their optics their only defense from the shadows that might have harbored their quarry. Tense, Arcee tried to keep her senses sharp, quelling the desire to contact Jack, hidden somewhere close by, fearful that Coatzin might possess the capability to intercept the transmission.

Arcee had instructed him to transmit a distress signal back to the Silo if she did not appear with Optimus within a half hour. She had knowingly kept that fact from the Prime, knowing he would have only insisted Jack refrain from doing so.

"Optimus?" Arcee inquired as silently as she could. "I'm getting nothing out here. Do you think she's still out there somewhere?"

"Indeed. I am sure of it." Optimus replied, his voice distant. "She is close."

"Fantastic."

"Easy, Arcee." The Prime told her. "The presence I felt earlier is growing in strength once more. Coatzin continues to fight it. All may not yet be lost."

"I hope you're…" Arcee caught the flash in the micro-second before the energy blast nearly tore through her right eye, shifting aside just in time to feel the shot graze her cheek, continuing on past her and into the night.

"Scrap!" Arcee growled, pushing Optimus back and down behind the nearest cover, hunkering down beside the Prime as she probed the gash in her cheek with her fingers. The graze wasn't deep, her automated repair systems would close it quickly enough.

"Looks like she lost that fight with herself." Arcee told Optimus heatedly. "Still think we should take the chance?"

"I have not yet surrendered hope, Arcee." Optimus told her calmly.

"Of course not. You wouldn't be you if you did." She answered, shaking her head.

"She grows more dangerous, of that I am aware." Optimus observed aloud, the frustration in his tone evident as he added, "We are running out of time."

"Do you have any idea how we might…" Arcee ventured before Optimus rose quickly to his feet, moving out from cover to stand fully exposed.

"Optimus! Get down!" Arcee yelled, trying to grab the Prime before he was out of reach. Stepping out of her grasp, Optimus traced the growing sense of darkness to it's source several yards away, Coatzin's exact location concealed by the night and it's shadows.

"Coatzin!" Optimus called into the night. "I know something of you remains. If not, we would already be dead. You have the strength to conquer the evil I sense. Whatever has overtaken your mind, it can be defeated. I have seen you claim victory from the seemingly impossible. This darkness inside you, it is not Primus. The light of our creator would never feel so foul. If you wish to behold the true light and wisdom of Primus, then open wide your eyes!"

With that, Optimus reached for the massive windshield covered plates upon his chest, pulling them apart, the shadows around him vanishing in the sudden wash of radiant light that filled the night. Shining like a star from within, The Matrix of Leadership bestowed upon Orion Pax so many centuries ago blazed with the power of the Cybertronian's maker.

From the shadows just beyond the light came a shriek of anguish that nearly stilled the Spark in Arcee's chest, the Autobot commander recovering quickly enough to track the sound to it's source. Stumbling from the twilight and into the pure white illumination from within Optimus's chest was Coatzin, rifle still in her grasp, the barrel jerking from left to right as the mentally besieged assassin appeared to play an unseen game of tug of war with the weapon.

Her face a mask of torment, Coatzin tried to keep her gaze focused on the Prime behind the light. "Optimus…help me. I…can't…fight it for long." She cried. Knowing she would not have a better chance, Arcee raised her weapons, ready to blast the Cybertronian woman if she lost her internal battle once more. As though suddenly aware of the Autobot commander, Coatzin sought out Arcee's eyes.

"Kill…kill me." She pleaded. "Kill me! Before I kill him!"

"Arcee, do not fire!" Optimus ordered. Gaze still focused on Coatzin, Optimus tried to draw his conflicted beloved's attention back to himself. "You can regain control, Coatzin. Focus on the Light of Primus, let it give you the strength it has given me."

"It's…it's too much! I can't!" The assassin screamed, trying to keep the weapon in her hands pointed away. "It's clawing at my mind! I can feel…its fingers on my spine, in…every circuit! Kill the Prime! KILL THE PRIME!"

"She's gone, Optimus! I'm taking the shot!" Arcee yelled.

"No, Arcee! Stand down! It is not too late!"

"It…is! Shoot, Arcee! Save him from me!"

"Do not fire!"

"Scrap!" Arcee growled. "Scrap!"

Again, Coatzin screamed, raising the rifle in her hands, taking aim at the Matrix in Optimus's chest. "THE PRIME DIES!"

"No!" Arcee cried, willing her canons to fire just as the space around Coatzin became electric fire, tendrils of voltage enveloping the Cybertronian woman, spasms raking her entire frame as the rifle in her hands fell from her grasp. After several moments of agony the lost Autobot finally crumpled to the valley floor.

Momentarily stunned, Optimus instantly closed his Spark Chamber, rushing to the stricken female's side.

"Arcee? Did you?" The Prime asked, lifting the unconscious Coatzin partly from the ground, checking to see if she remained functional.

"I didn't fire." Arcee told him, making sure to retrieve the discarded energy rifle before coming up beside him.

"Then where…?" Optimus asked before both Autobots heard a shuffling from behind the nearby rocks. Steeping out from behind the cover was a familiar teen.

"Jack?" Arcee exclaimed. "You got her?"

"Barely." Jack said sheepishly. "Thought for a second that EMP-Grenade was a dud." Looking between all three Cybertronians Jack added, "Are you two alright?"

Despite the gravity of the situation, Optimus marveled at the young human. Moving towards Jack, Arcee bent enough to wrap a free hand around the teen, pulling him into a kiss, her rigid self control momentarily forgotten.

Pulling back enough to touch her forehead to his, Arcee whispered, "You have great timing, you know that?"

Still somewhat dazed by the very open display of affection, Jack only managed an, "I try."

Pulling herself together quickly, Arcee gave her charge a brief squeeze before rising back to her feet, returning her attention to the matter at hand.

"No telling how long she'll be out, Optimus. You still think we can help her?" Arcee asked the Prime. "Is there even anything left to save?"

"This evil within her may have assumed control of her body, even her mind, but her Spark remains. There is hope." Optimus told them, his tone unquestioning. "But we must get her back to HQ. With Ratchet's assistance, we may find the means to restore her."

"Better make sure Bulkhead whips up something that can hold her if she wakes up not herself." Arcee observed, already opening a Com-Channel to the Ops-Center. Though they had survived an ordeal, she knew their night had only just begun.

…

Standing on the opposite side of the thick armored glass of the containment room, Bulkhead watched as Ratchet ran a diagnostics scanner over the still unconscious form of the Cybertronian woman held firmly to a bed with the magnetic titanium restraints he had fashioned for Decepticon prisoners. At the Medic's side, his blaster wound mended, was Optimus. Despite the security and other various extra steps he had taken to ensure both Optimus, and their own, protection, the big Autobot remained uneasy.

"Anyone else think this is a bad idea?" Bulkhead asked, not for the first time.

"Relax, Bulk." Miko reassured him, the girl seated squarely on one of his shoulders. "You've used, like, everything but the kitchen sink to lock her down, right? Plus, Ratchet says that Grenade thing was built to take down Optimus. She's like half his size. She won't be waking up for awhile."

"I still can't believe you managed to hold on to one of those things after North and his Stormtrooper wannabes pulled out of here." Bulkhead exclaimed, seeking out Jack, the teen conversing quietly with Arcee a short distance away. Whatever the two were discussing had left Jack a bit flushed with red around his ears, something Bulkhead recalled Miko telling him meant the other teen was embarrassed. What about the hulking Autobot couldn't tell.

"I, uh, can't really take credit for that." Jack said, running a hand through his hair, still somewhat flushed, as Arcee gazed down at him bemused. "Raf found the thing down on one of the sub-levels they had been patrolling when they were trying to smoke out Optimus and Ratchet. Must have fallen off during a firefight or something. After what happened to me and Arcee in that mining town, I figured it might be a good idea to bring it along if we weren't sure what we might be walking into."

"Let's just be thankful it worked." Arcee told him. "I don't want to think about what the alternative might have been."

"Right." Jack added somberly. "So, now that we know she's basically possessed, how do we help her?"

"I don't really know if that's the right word." Arcee corrected. "You're thinking of this from a spiritual standpoint, but for us things work a little differently."

"Indeed." Came Ratchet's voice from the containment room, the chamber's two way speakers having been left open. "According to my readings, there would appear to be a corruption in her trinary network and neural pathways."

"In English, Professor." Miko huffed.

"She has a virus. One more advanced then anything I have ever seen." Ratchet clarified. "It would appear to possess an artificial intelligence that is allowing it to scan Coatzin's memory engrams and alter them, creating something tantamount to hallucinations in you humans."

"Then what was the evil Optimus said he could sense?" Arcee inquired. "And how was he able to effect it when the Matrix was exposed?"

"That could very well be the virus code itself. If it is alive, in a fashion, it would project it's own separate life reading, one that the Matrix within Optimus can seemingly detect. The Matrix itself emits a powerful energy that can not be easily measured. It might have been enough to momentarily disrupt the effect of the virus on Coatzin's systems."

"If she's got a bug making her sick in the head, can you squash it?" Miko asked.

"Regretfully, it is not that simple." Ratchet told the girl.

"It never is, old friend." Optimus told the Autobot medic from opposite Coatzin's still form. "But that does not mean we will not try."

"Of course not, Optimus. I know what she means…that is to say I know how much you value the life of any Autobot. Lost as she is, she's still one of us. She's also a hero. I was there in that hellish place. We all were. I will do everything I can to help her."

"However," Ratchet continued. "The problem we face is how ingrained the virus is. All my attempts to probe it results in it burrowing ever deeper into her neural pathways. I fear an attempt to expunge it completely, even if successful, would render Coatzin an empty husk."

"We're also forgetting the obvious question, aren't we?" Jack offered. "Who put this virus in her in the first place? I mean, do the 'cons have stuff like this at their disposal?"

"Megatron, while vile in his Wartime practices, did not possess synthetic-biological weapons of this type." Optimus observed. "His greatest weapon was, and remains even under Starscream's command, Dark Energon. It is the driving force of the Decepticon's power and knowledge, and that is not what I sense within Coatzin."

"Maybe something that wack-job Knock Out cooked up?" Bulkhead ventured.

"That would not explain how Coatzin acquired this virus off-world, nor why Knock Out has refrained from using it before now." Ratchet replied. "Something of this severity and complexity would decimate our ranks. Starscream would not hesitate to put it to use if it was at his disposal."

"Wait…so, if the 'cons didn't do this to her, who did?" Miko inquired.

"That, Miko, is the question." Optimus said. "One that must be answered, though I fear said answers will not be found anywhere but within the shattered memories of our stricken comrade."

"Indeed. Even if she regains consciousness it is likely she will be incapable of focusing on anything save the compulsion to end your life, Optimus."

"Well, at least there's a clue there." Jack observed. "This virus wants her to kill Optimus. So, whoever created it has to be someone you knew. Was there ever anyone you fought who could make something like this?"

"No, Jack. No Cybertronian I encountered or knew of possessed the knowledge to create a virus that could harm anything except a computer network. Save for the Ancients, Science of this type was beyond the skills of our civilization even at the height of our Golden Age. Such knowledge would have been outlawed by the Council."

"Well, then, what if they did it?" Miko offered.

"Who, Miko? Bulkhead asked the girl, peering at her quizzically.

"These Ancients. What if they made it?"

"Miko, The Ancients are the Thirteen original Primes and the dawn of our people." Arcee explained. "That was several hundred millennia ago. The knowledge they possessed came directly from Primus, but it was lost over time. All that was left of it could only be seen in the cities that covered Cybertron."

"Wait, Miko's got a point." Jack interjected. "Coatzin said it was Primus that wanted her to kill Optimus. And you just said the Ancients were given their knowledge directly from your creator."

The uneasy silence that filled the air gave even Jack and Miko pause as the Cybertronians exchanged looks ranging from fear to hesitant doubt.

"No, that is not a possibility." Ratchet chided, trying to convey an unquestioning certainty. "The Ancients vanished long, long ago. If there was even the slightest hint that they remained, let alone that they were angered with us in some way, we would have heard rumor of it before the War. Or, surely, that information would have resided in the Matrix of Leadership. Isn't that right, Optimus?"

"I…can not say, Ratchet." Optimus responded somewhat uncertainly. "Though it has gifted me with the wisdom of the Primes, the Matrix yet holds it's secrets, held for a time when they might be most needed. If such knowledge exists concerning the continued existence of the Original Thirteen it is yet beyond me."

"Wait, so, we could really be dealing with the Ancients here?" Bulkhead asked. "Oh man. We're humped."

"I will not admit defeat, my friend. Not yet." Optimus replied firmly. "We will not abandon Coatzin to this corruption. I will not abandon her." Standing over the Cybertronian woman, Optimus was silent, his gaze distant as he fought to find an answer to the great obstacle that lay before them.

Quietly, the rest of the team waited. After several moments Jack and Arcee exchanged concerned glances, with even Ratchet looking as though he was about to speak up before the Prime suddenly came around, something new and bright in his eyes.

"Yes. That is it. Her memories." Optimus exclaimed. Realizing he was being watched, the Prime turned to regard them. "It is as I said. The secrets to what has done this to her, and how to stop it, may very well reside in her memories. If Coatzin is no longer capable of giving this information to us freely, then we must seek it out ourselves."

"Optimus, I don't quite follow you." Ratchet replied hesitantly.

"Her memories, old friend. We must seek them out, and piece them together. And, I fear, we must do so from with-in Coatzin's own stricken mind."

To Be Continued…


	6. Chapter 6

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Chapter Six

The room was silent in the wake of what Optimus had just told them. Almost eerily, Jack could hear the Silo's ventilation system rattling away, the consistent buzz of the Hub computer's massive hard drives loud in his ears. Above him, Arcee wore a mask of unreadable emotion.

For Jack and Miko, as humans, it seemed the true implications of what had been suggested was beyond them. For her part, the Japanese girl was not about to let that fact go unvoiced.

"I think something got lost in translation here, guys." Miko observed, shifting her questioning gaze to each of their Cybertronian allies. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"Yeah." Jack added. "I don't follow. How can someone go inside someone else's memories? Like Hypnosis or something?"

"No, Jack." Ratchet replied hesitantly, trying to find the correct words to convey what had been proposed. "Hypnosis may work on a purely biological mind such as yours. However, for complex neural networks like those of any Cybertronian, simple memories require much more…extreme and invasive measures to retrieve if they can not be recalled voluntarily."

Turning to Optimus, the medic added sternly, "It's called a cortical patch. And, there are risks."

"What kind of risks?" Miko asked.

"Dangers that could risk those seeking buried answers." The Prime answered somberly. "To not only understand what has happened to Coatzin, but the identity of those responsible for her corruption, one of us must join our cognitive network to hers, in essence allowing our minds to become one. This action creates a joint consciousness, one that leaves both minds exposed to the will of the other."

"I still don't understand." Jack admitted. "What does that mean?

"It means that, once inside, whom-ever of us joins ourselves to Coatzin's neural matrix could loose ourselves to memories that are not our own." Ratchet explained gravely. "It is even possible to have our own consciousness, in essence, over written, allowing Coatzin to gain control, even if it is unintentional on her part, of our bodies."

"Wait, so, like, she could totally go all Body Snatchers on you guys?" Miko ventured.

"I, err, well…yes, I suppose that is a loosely accurate analogy. It is also possible that the two minds would become locked in a battle over one body, eventually destroying both individuals as a result."

"Whoa, wait. If it's that dangerous, why did the Autobots even invent the thing?" Jack inquired. "Is there another way?"

"The cortical patch is a Decepticon creation, hence the lack of protective measures. And I am afraid there is not, Jack." Optimus answered, placing a hand over the still woman's armored brow. "Either we venture into her mind to save her, or we watch as this virus consumes her fully, overcoming even her Spark."

"Wait. The Virus. What about that? Can whoever connects to her contract this virus as well?" Jack added.

"While I can not extract or eradicate the virus from her, I could, in theory, create inhibitors to be conjoined to our natural immunity systems." Ratchet mused aloud. "In essence I could create a firewall between Coatzin and whomever links in, though there is no telling how long it would keep the virus at bay given it's A.I. programming and adaptability."

"Then we need Raf." Miko observed. "If he could give Soundwave a run for his money, I'll bet he could find a way to keep the virus from getting into one of you guys."

"Raf could prove useful." Ratchet agreed, looking to Optimus. "Though the hour is still quite late. Bringing him would pose a problem."

"Raf's got major tech at his house. I bet he could do everything you guys need from there." Miko offered.

"Let us hope you are correct, Miko." The Prime said. "Ratchet, contact Bumblebee and inform him of the situation." The Autobot Medic quickly cycled through the containment room's airlock, stepping out into the Op's center proper to contact Raphael's stalwart guardian.

"Uh, I suppose in the meantime we have to decide who's going in." Bulkhead declared.

"That will not be necessary, Bulkhead." Optimus answered. "Coatzin's life is my responsibility."

"No, Optimus." Arcee said suddenly, her silence at last broken. "With all due respect, you're crazy if you think we'll let you take that risk."

"Coatzin sacrificed herself to ensure my life and so many other long ago. I owe her no different now."

"We're all in her debt, Optimus. But you're not thinking this through rationally." Arcee countered. "First, if Coatzin's mind, or the virus, overcomes you, there's no guarantee the Matrix of Leadership would protect you even if it was able to effect the virus. Imagine what this thing could do with all your knowledge and power. Also, I'm the only one here who has any real experience with this process." Arcee added, almost hesitantly. It did not go unnoticed by Jack.

"If you go in there, and some part of Coatzin's sub-conscious recognizes you it might only insight her to recoil. Whoever goes in has to be able to leave almost no trace. It has to be someone she either never encountered before, someone her memory engrams won't consider important, or someone's who's only had a loose connection to her in the past."

"Wait." Jack interjected, unable to keep his question unvoiced any longer. "What do you mean you've had experience? Did another Autobot have this done to them during The War."

Arcee deigned not to answer for a moment, her face becoming a mask once more. Still avoiding Jack's gaze, the Autobot commander sighed. "Yes. In a manner of speaking." Jack could see Arcee form a fist, clenching it tightly. "Me. It wasn't voluntary."

For a moment Jack found he couldn't speak as his mind raced at the revelation. Suddenly, he recalled the traumatic experience his Cybertronian love had endured back on her Homeworld. "Airachnid." Jack replied, the name coming out with no shortage of fury and contempt. "She did it?"

"Before…murdering Tailgate. She tried to get the Intel she thought I had by force. She wasn't in my head very long before she went after him." Arcee recalled painfully, her outrage palatable. "But that kind of…violation leaves an impression you don't forget."

Recovering as best she could Arcee turned her focus back to Optimus. "You read my debriefing report. The only reason I was able to keep Airachnid out was because, even in the recesses of my mind, I knew Airachnid didn't belong. If Coatzin is almost completely under the influence of the virus then it will be the same thing. She'll see you as an enemy and her barriers will try to push you out. Her caste training to resist torture or interrogation is going to make this whole thing difficult enough."

Coming up to the thick glass of the chamber, Arcee added firmly. "If it can't be you, Optimus, I'm the most logical candidate."

"Wait, what?" Jack said, startled. "No. After everything that Ratchet said could happen, there's no way I'm letting you…"

"This isn't open to debate, Jack." Arcee responded angrily. "Risk or no, if there's any hope of saving her Spark, it rests with me. I won't endanger another when I have the better chance. Even for you."

Jack struggled to find some logical argument to counter with, but found he couldn't. Feeling defeated, a cold ache in his chest, the teen simply turned away.

Seeing the pained look on his face, Arcee wanted more then anything to wrap her fingers around him, to pull him close and remind him how much she loved him. But, she knew, given the current situation, she had to show greater strength in the face of the obstacle that lay before them. The idea of parting them, however painful it was to Arcee, would give Optimus even greater pause, enough to refuse her recommendation.

Aware that both Bulkhead and Miko where watching the awkward exchange, Arcee recommitted to convincing the Prime. "Optimus, Coatzin spared me on the Interstate. Even in the Valley you were still her primary concern. If some part of her consciousness noticed me I wouldn't be important enough to warrant further attention. Hell, when we first met back on Cybertron she barely noticed me even after saving my life. I was a blip on her screen, nothing more. Safe to assume it's going to be the same in there."

Listening, Optimus contemplated Arcee's suggestions, waging a silent struggle with his own emotions, his own desire to restore a life he still felt responsible for loosing at war with his role as Prime. Much as Arcee was doing, he had to be willing to sacrifice personal feelings for the more pragmatic course. Clearing his voice in the stillness that followed, Ratchet caught the group's attention.

"Bumblebee has relayed the situation to Raf. He is ready to do what he can to help create the firewalls. With my understanding of Cybertronian neural science and his keen ingenuity, for a human, I'm sure we can devise an adequate defense, though it may take some time." Ratchet looked between Optimus and Arcee.

"If we have decided who will join the link, we must start preparing now."

Arcee looked directly to the Prime. "Well?"

Though his apprehension was evident, Optimus knew the choice was clear, and the team was steadily loosing precious time. "Very well. Ratchet, prepare Arcee for the joining. And may Primus be with us."

. . .

"Jack?" Arcee inquired gently from behind him, the calm of the late evening air allowing her voice to carry easily. When Jack, seated outside the silo atop it's upper landing pad, had heard the distant rumble of the facility's vehicle lift, he had known it would be her. Silently, he prepared himself to declare his discontent and outrage at what Arcee was risking, his anger righteous. Even coming up for "air" several minutes before he had given silent fuel to the cold fire inside.

However, by the time the heavy steel doors of the lift parted on the surface Jack felt all the fury drain away. Several hours earlier he and Arcee had discussed how nothing, neither person nor circumstance, could endanger the love between them. Despite current events and the dangers therein, that belief and conviction had not changed.

Despite her size, Arcee managed to keep her steps light as she moved across the landing pad, eventually settling down beside the brooding teen. Before she could say anything, Jack forged ahead, knowing her concerns before she even voiced them.

"I understand, okay." Jack told her, trying to keep his tone even. "I do. If it were me on that table, and Optimus or even BB was the best choice to help me you'd send them instead of going yourself, even with the risk. You'd do the right thing, and Coatzin's life isn't any less valuable then mine."

"Jack." Arcee sighed, placing the tips over fingers along his back. "I know you're afraid for me, but.."

"Damn right I'm afraid." Jack replied, his voice cracking slightly with emotion. "I can't…loose you. I thought I did once already back at the mining town. And, just the thought of going through that again, it…I just…I can't loose you."

"Any more then I could bare to loose you?" Arcee asked him, wrapping her fingers about him with one hand, using the tip of a finger on the other to raise his face up towards her. "When I admitted my feelings for you, I knew the risk. I knew there would be hard choices to make, for both of us, when it came to duty. But, what we have, I knew it could weather anything. It's why I hated myself for getting so jealous over you and that stupid girl."

Running a finger lightly through his hair she continued. "I'm worried about what could happen, but, even if I didn't have my prior experience with the Patch, I know I'd be able to keep my own mind in there, because all I'd have to do is think of you, waiting for me out here, and there's no way I'd let anyone keep me from coming back or let them take my place."

"I know." Jack told her quietly.

"And even if you're not linked, you'll still be with me." She told him, caressing his face.

Jack suddenly blinked. "What?" He asked.

"Hmm?" Arcee inquired. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I…what did you just say?"

"About…? I said even if you're not in the link you'll still be here." She answered, touching a hand to her chest above her Spark Chamber.

"Right. I'm…sorry." Jack told her quickly, trying to conceal the thought that had just formed in his head. "Like you said. I'll be there with you."

Before Arcee could say anything further, her com-channel chimed, Ratchet's voice coming though.

"Arcee? We're about ready down here. I'll need to run some preliminary scans on you before we proceed further."

"Copy. We're on our way down." Arcee responded crisply. Looking down at Jack, she smiled. "Come on. Unless I want Ratchet to put me under with every little technical detail I'll need you by my bedside."

"Got it." Jack said with a laugh. "I, uh, need to give the house a call. It's been a while since I checked in. Last thing I need is my mother calling Fowler's offices asking questions."

"Good idea. It's going to be a long night still." Arcee agreed. Leaning down she gave her charge a long kiss. "I'll see you down there." Getting to her feet, the Cybertronian woman moved to the lift, taking it back down to the Op's Center.

The moment the massive doors closed, Jack had his cell phone in hand. However, the number he dialed was not for his home.

"Jack?" Raf asked, clearly bewildered. "Why are you calling? Aren't you at the base?"

"Yeah, Raf. Sorry." Jack stammered. "Look, I don't have a lot of time. There's something I need your help with. And, I'll tell you now, you're not going to like it. But, believe me when I tell you it's important."

The line was quiet for a moment before the young boy answered with a hesitant, "Okay."

"Good. Look, how much did Ratchet explain to you about how this Link thing of theirs works." Jack inquired. "I mean, how much of it do you understand?"

"Uh, well, most of it. I guess." Raf confessed. "The code I need to create for the firewall has to work in conjunction with the Bio-Synthetic Neural Net that comprises Cybertronian brain chem…"

"It's complicated! I get it, Raf." Jack interrupted, knowing he wouldn't be able to get a word in edge wise if he didn't. "I just need you to answer a question, though it's probably not an easy one. And you have to swear to me that you won't pass it on to Ratchet or the others. Swear?"

"Jack, I don't understand. Why can't…" Raf tried.

"Swear to me." Jack repeated, his tone almost pleading. "If you're my friend, swear to me."

Jack could hear the young computer wizard swallow audibly. After a moment, Raf answered solemnly. "Swear."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Jack pressed ahead. "Okay. Here's what I need to know…"

…

"Are we prepared, Ratchet?" Optimus asked from the exterior side of the containment room's observation glass. Within, the Autobot medic was making the final connections to the cortical patch and it's mainframe device that would help maintain the divide between the two linked minds while, in tandem, permitting Arcee to temporarily exist in the other.

Laid out on another table beside Coatzin, Arcee did her best to appear calm and in full control. At her side, Jack stood atop a small supply crate, giving him enough elevation to hold one of Arcee's hands in his own. The tension in it was the only indication of Arcee's trepidation.

"I believe we are as prepared as we can possibly be, Optimus." Ratchet confirmed, rechecking the calibrations made to the device. "Raphael's firewall software has been uploaded and it appears to be working well within acceptable parameters. Rather impressive, actually."

"Another few years, he might be able to replace you, Doc." Arcee offered, bemused. "Give you time for that long overdue vacation."

"Droll, Arcee. And do not believe for a moment that will distract me from the seriousness of this procedure." Under his breath the Medic added. "Replace me. Highly unlikely."

"Then, if all that can be done has been, let us proceed. I fear our stricken comrade has little enough time remaining." The Prime observed, eyes set on Coatzin's still form.

"Indeed. Then, let's begin." Ratchet agreed, re-checking the direct neural feeds set along Arcee's brow and temples. Turning to Jack the Autobot medic said gently. "I'm afraid you will have to join the others once she is in the Link, Jack. If something where to…well, I will need to be in full control of the room. No distractions."

"Got it. I just want to stay long enough to make sure she's alright."

"Of course. Well, Arcee, if you're ready, I'll begin the patch."

Arcee gave the other Autobot a subtle nod. "Let's do it."

With nothing further, Ratchet turned to the mainframe and it's primary terminal, initializing the sequence. "As I'm sure you'll recall, Arcee, the Decepticons did not develop this technology with comfort in mind. There will be some minor disorientation and then discomfort before the Link is established."

"Yeah." Arcee replied stiffly. "I remember.

"Very well. Initializing in Ten seconds…Nine…" Ratchet slowly counted down.

Though unable to turn her head completely, Arcee did her best to look to her side at her charge. "See you in my dreams, huh?" She told him with a small smile.

"Count on it." Jack told her, his tone firm and confidant, with a greater weight then Arcee took notice off as she listened to Ratchet's count.

"…Two…One. Link." The Mainframe chimed and almost instantly Arcee shook, eyes closed, her face momentarily marred by a grimace of pain.

"Ratchet?" Jack asked, fear for Arcee etched in his face.

"The Link is establishing. As I said, the process is not entirely pleasant. Give her a moment, Jack."

Turning back to watch her, Jack looked on, feeling powerless, as Arcee continued to twist slightly in place. On the opposite table, Coatzin's previously unmoving frame suddenly jumped, the assassin pulling against her restraints, her reaction almost mirroring Arcee though becoming far more violent.

"What is happening, Ratchet?" Optimus asked.

"She is fighting the Link. Or, more to the point, I believe the Virus is fighting it. It is attempting to disable the mainframe via the connection nodes. Raf's firewalls are holding."

"Can you do anything further?" Optimus inquired.

"It is now a battle of wills. Arcee's versus Coatzin's and the corruption within. If Arcee's will is the stronger, she will push through."

For several moments more the two Cybertronian women thrashed about, each threatening to dislodge the feeds attached to them. At Arcee's side, Jack reached for her clenching hand, aware that she could, inadvertently, break his own with a squeeze. Taking hold of it, Jack leaned in as far as he could towards her.

"Arcee." Jack whispered. "You can do this. This is round two, remember? You and her. I know you hate to loose. So come on. Kick her ass."

Jack's mother June had often told him that patients in deep sleeps or comas could often hear people speaking to them as though they were perfectly awake, even if they could not respond audibly. Often, those patients would moan or even grip an offered hand to show they heard. Jack had often wondered if that were true, but as Arcee's shaking stilled, and her long fingers tightened about his hand, that question was put to rest.

"Link is stabilizing." Ratchet declared, relief clear in his voice. "Connection from Arcee is…confirmed."

"Thank Primus." Optimus replied from outside the room. "Is all well, Ratchet?"

"It looks to be. Now it's only a matter of waiting." Ratchet said, verifying the data moving across the terminal screen. "When Arcee is ready for extraction she need only look for the tells in her respective environment within Coatzin's mind. It could manifest as a door, portal, or something else completely out of place. Coatzin will not be aware of it, but Arcee should see it clearly."

"I have faith Arcee will find the source of this corruption, and the key to ending it." The Prime declared without doubt. "Jack. Please join us in the Operations Center. Ratchet will keep a close watch."

"That is a promise." The medic added.

"Right." Jack said, feeling suddenly tense. "Ratchet? Do you think, I mean, just for a moment, you could leave me with her?" The teen asked, avoiding eye contact.

"I do not know if that would be prudent, Jack. Should something happen I will need to be at the ready to intervene."

"I know. I'm…sorry. I just. I have something I want to tell her. Something…private." Jack explained.

"Optimus?" Ratchet asked, turning to the Prime for advisement.

"It is alright, old friend. There are some things best said while we still have the chance to say them." Optimus observed, his gaze straying to the once more unmoving Coatzin.

"Well, so be it." The medic said, trying to not sound unsympathetic.

"I understand, Ratchet." Jack told him. "I won't be long."

Giving the teen a nod, Ratchet cycled through the airlock, leaving Jack alone. Holding Arcee's hand tightly, Jack waited to hear the hatch seal completely. Then he moved. Leaping from the crate, his cell out, Jack said, "Now, Raf."

Pushing the supply crate to the terminal, Jack pulled up the software package Raphael had added to the firewall program at the last moment before sending it to Ratchet and the Silo's network. Outside, Optimus stepped to the glass.

"Jack? What are you doing?"

Trying to key the cycle for the containment's airlock the Autobot medic only shook his head. "Someone has disabled the system. I can not override."

Behind them, Miko and Bulkhead looked on in stunned silence as Jack continued to type away at the mainframe's terminal, his intent still unclear.

In the containment room, Jack keyed the command for the Raf's program.

"You sure this is going to work, Raf?" Jack asked, his voice strained.

"It should. I mean, well, yeah, it should. If everything Ratchet explained to me about how the patch interacts with they're cerebral network it's just a matter of instructing it on how to interface with a human cortex." Raf anxiety was obvious. "I don't like this, Jack."

"Once I'm finished you can explain everything to them. Optimus will understand." Jack looked out long enough to see Ratchet nearly shooting hot coals from his eyes, with Miko and Bulkhead looking wide eyed.

"Something tells me only_ Optimus will understand. But, it'll be enough, Raf." _

"_You better be right. When BB finds out he's going to spin his tires." _

"_Don't worry. Almost done." Jack started the program. Stepping down from the crate, Jack gave the box one last push back towards Arcee, climbing up quickly. "Okay, Raf, are you sure this won't hurt her?" _

"_I'm sure. I know how important that is." The young boy told him. "The Link is already stable, so the secondary feeds are just relaying cognitive data. Just don't touch the ones on her temples. The program should compensate for the disconnect long enough for you to…well, do what you're going to do." _

"_Okay." Jack told him, his breath ragged. "Here it goes." Reaching up, Jack pulled one of the feeds from Arcee's brow. Almost immediately, Arcee twitched, but no alarms sounded from the terminal. Had there been any real risk to her, Jack knew he would have abandoned his plan._

"_Jack?" Raf asked shakingly. "Are you sure about this? I mean, I think I got everything right, but…" _

"_Raf, it's okay. I can't just sit here and let her risk herself in there alone."_

"_Jack!" Ratchet exclaimed from outside the room. "Don't do it! There's no telling what effect it will…"_

"_The virus can't effect me since I'm not a Cybertronian. So, if this doesn't work, I'll likely just knock myself out for a few hours, maybe forget how to do math a little. If it works, then…I'm with her in more then just spirit." He finished, placing a hand over hers. _

"_Raf?" Jack said. "Thank you."_

"_Jack!" Optimus yelled. _

_With that, Jack pushed the feed to his head. Almost at once the world turned upside down and inside out. Jack had the faintest sense that he was screaming and then everything was silent. _

_To Be Continued… _


	7. Chapter 7

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Chapter Seven

Where ever he was it was dark, cold, and in the near distance there was strangest vibration that seemed to come from everywhere at once.

_Am I dead? _He asked himself silently through the shroud of fog that was slowly lifting from his mind. _God…if I am, Arcee will kill me. _

As pain slowly began to register across his entire body, Jack came to the slow conclusion that, even though he could barely see, he was, in fact, very much alive. The ache in his head and the darkness before him reminded him all too keenly of his time spent at the mercy of the reanimated Cliffjumper. That wasn't an experience he was eager to relive. The cold that seemed to permeate the air became ever more insistent, soaking through his clothes and numbing the side of his face that lay pressed against the unseen floor, hard and cool.

_Metal floor? Am I still in the containment room?_ Still trying to shake off the haze in his mind, Jack willed his body to move, feeling ever more conscious as his limbs responded to his mental commands. Still unable to see exactly where he was, Jack tried to focus on the vibrations that rumbled through the metal underfoot and the walls around him. While the sounds seemed to come from all sides, a hand placed flat upon the nearest wall he could find, stumbling through the near darkness, gave Jack a sense of the vibration's source.

_Well. Can't stay here. Obviously not the Silo. Have to find Arcee_.

Taking one tentative step, then another, Jack felt his way down what he could only assume was a massive conduit of some sort, perhaps a ventilation pipe, larger then anything he had seen in his time with the Autobots. As he moved ahead, his thoughts wandered to how he had come to be here in the first place.

He began to recall what seemed only moments before, but what very well could have been hours, even days, ago, using Raf's augmented software for the Cognitive Patch to follow Arcee into whatever chaos awaited in the mind of Optimus's would be killer, the Autobot hero Coatzin. Raphael himself had warned him, trying to make Jack understand that the science behind what the Patch could do and how it might, or might not, work on a Human mind was almost even beyond the boy genius's understanding. Without Ratchet to verify the safety of what Jack had intended to do, there was a very real chance the damage to his mind could be fatal.

But Jack had known, somewhere deep inside, that Arcee would need him. That, whatever the risk, he had to try. He could not allow her to face the unknown alone. He then remembered essentially hijacking the containment room's systems and using one of Arcee's cognitive feeds to join the link between her and Coatzin. And now, he was…where?

_This…can't be a dream. It feels…too real_. He observed, feeling the cold metal of the tunnel wall under his hand as he walked. Regardless of his whereabouts, Jack focused on locating his Cybertronian love.

After what seemed like an eternity, Jack felt the vibrations underfoot grow steadily stronger, with new sounds drifting down the tunnel towards him, and a light, a strange azure glow that seemed to come from the wall's themselves, the skin of his hands and fingers beginning to tingle. It was something he had felt before, when in the presence of…

"Energon." Jack realized aloud. Only a few meters ahead, Jack could see the faintest glow of a new light source, far brighter, illuminating the tunnel. The pain in his body now almost completely faded, Jack broke into a brisk run, eager to understand just where exactly he was. The tunnel curved, appearing to at last open up to what seemed like Daylight. Jacked sprinted ahead…and only just managed to avoid plummeting to his death as the pipe suddenly ended at a drop into what seemed like infinity. Staggering to a stop, arms waving for balance, Jack felt his stomach twist into knots as he beheld the chasm of steel and light below.

"Holy crap." He said almost breathlessly. "Yeah, that would have…sucked?" Taking his gaze from the sight below, Jack felt his eyes grow wide at what resided above.

Stretched out as far as his sight could comprehend was a vast, Megalithic Metropolis. Spires of glimmering Steel and Crystal, sprawling concourses of living light, a veritable ocean of complex transparent moving networks of energy the likes of which his mind could have never imagined. Jack tried to process what his eyes could see and felt overwhelmed.

Somewhere, in his memory, he recalled quiet moments, where, enveloped in Arcee's embrace, he had listened to her tell stories of a time before the War, when she had lived in a place of such wonders no description she could offer could do it justice.

"You'd have to see it for yourself." She had told him, both joy and sorrow in her voice. Standing over a great, empty void, Jack beheld what she had wanted him to see.

"Cybertron."

…

It had taken Jack nearly a full half hour to recover from his discovery. Even now, having worked through a series of pipes and make-shift crawl spaces along the wall of the chasm, leaving the massive, though defunct, Energon conduit behind, he could scarcely wrap his head around the realization that he was on Cybertron. From the lack of devastation he also quickly surmised that it was sometime before The Fall, though how much before he could not even begin to guess.

After more then an hour of meandering like a mouse in a maze, Jack at last stumbled upon one of the transparent glass tubes that appeared to serve as a kind of transit system. Though the one he found himself slinking cautiously down did not appear to be in operation, he had glimpsed others snaking through the Cybertronian city, a steady stream of vehicle shifted figures speeding through them.

Every moment Jack felt he was beginning to gain a grasp on the situation he would look up to see yet another technological marvel rising high above or streaking through the heavens. Arcee and the other Autobots had given both Jack and their other human friends mere glimpses into the world from whence they had came, but only now that he could set his own eyes upon it did Jack begin to comprehend the gravity of what they had lost and why Optimus was so fiercely determined to not see a distant history repeat itself on Earth.

The Transit-Tube took almost another hour to cross before it, at last, emptied out into the city proper. For the first time Jack felt his awe become replaced by dread. Though the circumstances of his being there were not entirely clear he was aware of one particular fact, namely that Humans where not known on Cybertron. To it's people, he would be as Alien as little green men. The consequences of him being discovered was not something he was anxious to test, not unless he was unable to locate Arcee.

"How do I find her?" Jack inquired aloud, realizing he had not given that aspect of his mission much thought. When he had made the choice to enter into the link to seek out Arcee and remain by her side he had assumed that, somehow, it would be an easy enough thing to locate his partner once he awoke within Coatzin's memories. However, awaking in the conduit, he had found no trace of Arcee. If she had arrived in the same place she had quickly departed it, leaving no trace. For all Jack knew she wasn't even within the City.

"No. Can't think that." Jack berated himself heatedly. "She's here. I know she is. Think, Jack. Remember what she told you about Home. Where would she go if she was back here?"

Before he could figure that out, Jack knew he would have to learn in which of Cybertron's many cities he currently resided. While Iacon was the Capitol City State, there were many other sprawls across the surface of the cybernetic world. Places with names like Kalis and Tarn. Given the epic grandeur of the city rising above him, Jack hoped he was in Iacon, though it's incredible width and breadth would not exactly aid him in locating one Cybertronian woman among many.

Following the Transit-Tube's exit ramp Jack found himself before one of the massive concourses that dotted the cityscape. Across from the ramp, past a broad neon lit thoroughfare, Jack caught site of the first unfamiliar Cybertronians he had seen, moving through what resembled a park back on Earth, though a decidedly mechanical one. Though they bore some physical similarities to the likes of Arcee, Bumblebee and even the giant Bulkhead, the cybernetic citizens of the unknown city were somewhat sleeker in appearance, seeming slightly less mechanical in nature. Almost organic.

Jack wondered if their native anatomy had to do with the lack of Human influences. The Autobots, even the Decepticons, had scanned human cars, jets and the like to blend in when in their respective vehicle modes. The augmentation to their bodies to accommodate the new Transformations altered their bipedal appearance, something that was easy to notice when in their company.

Arcee had told him once that she rather liked her appearance, though it had taken some getting used to. When he had commented that he rather liked her appearance as well she had given him a coy smile, saying, "You better."

It was a strange thing, Jack mused somberly, to see so many of Arcee's people together, seemingly living lives free of a conflict they did not even possibly know was coming; a war that would tear their world asunder. But he knew he couldn't dwell on that. There was still the question of where he was.

Staying low, Jack spied the thoroughfare before him for any traffic. Seeing none, he moved quickly across, mindful of how exposed he was, the luminescent lights of the city giving his jeans and jacket a slight glow. Entering the park proper, Jack sought the nearest concealing spot he could, hunkered in the shadow of a massive Sculpture that was both physical and holographic. Had he not been so fearful of discovery, Jack might have been in awe at the beauty of the thing.

Hoping himself adequately concealed, Jack waited for those strolling through the park to walk past, hoping to overhear some snippet of conversation. It was only as he spied an impressive Vid-Screen in the near distance, reporting some event in the city, that Jack realized he had overlooked one rather significant inconvenience. Seeing the indecipherable Cybertronian script moving across the bottom of the screen, Jack realized he was on a world where no being had even heard of Humans, let alone any of the dialects spoken on Earth.

"Scrap. Nice move, Jack-Ass. No one speaks _English_ on Cybertron." Belatedly, Jack smacked his palm to his brow. "Damn it. How the hell do I find out where I am?"

Both his frustration and desperation growing, Jack slumped against the backside of the sculpture, feeling nearly defeated and fearful that he would not only loose himself in the Technological city but that he would never find Arcee in time to aid her. Lost in his thoughts he almost missed the sound of a heavy metal foot coming down behind him, spinning about Jack saw an alloyed hand descending for him just in time to roll away, leaving the space he had previously occupied empty.

_Damn, can't be locked up in some Cybertron Area 51! _He thought as he ran, all attempts at concealment forgotten as he tried to evade his pursuer. Darting between various other sculptures and artificial flora Jack did his best to avoid blundering into the path of the Cybertronians moving through the park. His attempts seemed successful as none made a move to intercept him.

The park, however, proved even more immense then Jack had initially perceived, the size of it appearing on par to New York's Central Park. The only benefit he could see was that the park grew more dense with the cybernetic flora he had seen in his wake. If he was lucky, Jack believed he could loose whomever was after him. Wondering at that, Jack could spy through the bioluminescent foliage a tall sleek figure moving through the crowd towards him.

"Got to keep moving." Jack urged, moving deeper into the artificial woodscape. The shimmering neon flowers and other flora became more densely packed, making further progress difficult. While woodlands back on Earth might have been more pliant, the artificial constructs that rose before him seemed comprised of alloys that, while light, did not shift aside easily.

"Okay. This might pose a problem." Jack observed. "Think, think." Looking about, the teen tried to ascertain a solution. Not far behind him, the sound of heavy footfalls heralded the imminent arrival of his would-be captor.

"Must have figured I'd get stuck in here. Smart." Jack fumed. His pursuer drawing close, Jack tried to find some escape, pacing back and forth his feet suddenly rattled upon something. Looking down, Jack could feel his hope for escape quickly renewed. Set into the quasi-organic surface underfoot was a large ovoid hatch of some sort. While Jack could not read the script on it's surface, he was familiar enough with Cybertronian engineering to get the gist of how it could be opened. Running his hand along the surface, the teen found the latch points set into it.

Pulling them back, Jack was rewarded with an instant click, the massive plate sliding back to expose what appeared to be a maintenance tunnel running beneath the park. The opening, built to accommodate a Cybertronian of even ample size, did not pose a problem, however the long drop into the tunnel did. For a being of Optimus's height the drop would be nothing, however, for Jack, the fall would likely end with a broken ankle.

"Great. There goes that plan." Jack's eyebrows suddenly rose. "Unless…"

Wasting no time, Jack moved, rolling into the artificial undergrowth, leaving the hatch open. Trying to nearly still his breathing, he waited. In moments, his Cybertronian assailant slipped into view, though from Jack's perspective beneath the glowing flora he could not discern clearly any physical details. The tall figure moved almost instantly to the Hatch, peering down into it's depths. After a moment, the Cybertronian gave the area one last look before dropping into the tunnel below.

"Eureka." Jack exclaimed silently. Rolling out from cover, Jack rushed to the Hatch, pushing the latches back into place. Immediately the hatch slid closed, leaving his pursuer no point of easy return. "Piece of Cake." He said proudly. His pursuit now at an end, Jack tried to retrace his steps back towards the Park proper.

_If I stay low and work back around I might be able to hear something to help find… _Something heavy struck him on the back, sending Jack spilling to the ground. Dazed, he tried to get to his feet, hoping to make for the open once more but a great metal weight suddenly atop his legs kept that idea from moving forward.

"Ugh! Get off me!" Jack growled, trying in vein to dislodge himself.

"You're not in a position to demand anything." Came a slightly metallic female voice from above.

"Who do you…!" Jack paused, realizing he had, in fact, heard what he thought he had heard. "Wait, I can understand you."

"Good. That'll make your interrogation a lot easier." The voice said. "Now. Stay still or I'll really put a hurt on you."

Doing as instructed, Jack ceased moving.

"Control, this is Patrol Unit CT-6305, I have unknown sentient in custody. Returning."

"Confirmed, Echo. We'll notify Central Security. They'll be interested in this, to say the least."

"Wait. You can't take in me. I'm not…whatever you think I am." Jack pleaded.

"I don't know _what you are, that's the point. But if you aren't dangerous, maybe you shouldn't have been hiding like robo-rat in the shadows. Seemed like you weren't exactly keen on introducing yourself." _

"_There's a reason for that. I'm not…I'm not supposed to be here." _

"_We can both agree on that." The female said in a huff. "No, on your feet. And don't even think of running or, by the All-Spark, I'll lay you flat." _

"_You're making a mistake, I have to find…"_

"_Quiet!" The female sighed. "Figures. First day in Iacon and I get involved in some Planetary Security nightmare waiting to happen…" _

"_Iacon?" Jack asked, jumping at the recognition. Turning about he still couldn't see in the low light of the glowing flora the face of his captor. "I'm in Iacon? Do you know someone named…"_

"_I said quiet, or I'll take your voice off line!" the female growled. "Now walk." _

_Newly frustrated, Jack could do little else but follow instructions, walking out from the growth slowly. _

_The Cybertronian Security Officer continued to mumble to herself. _

"_Can't wait to log this report to Central. Primus help me." She murmured. "Wait till Wheeljack hears about this…"_

_Stepping out into the park proper, Jack almost stumbled at the familiar name. Turning about once more, risking his captor's ire further, Jack watched the security officer step out into the clear light. _

"_Did you say Wheel…?" Jack's words caught in his throat. "No way..." _

_Gazing down at him, Arcee's eyes narrowed. Without another word, she shot him._

_To Be Continued… _


	8. Chapter 8

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Chapter Eight

Jack slowly came too, almost instantly fighting the urge to retch, the world spinning slightly on it's axis. As his immediate surroundings came into focus it didn't take the teen long to realize he was no longer in the Iacon Park. His hand secured firmly at his back by some form of corded material, Jack twisted about enough to see all sides of the small compartment he was in. Grey tinted metal walls and nothing resembling a window or viewport could be seen. Still shaking off the effects of whatever had rendered him unconscious, Jack tried to listen for any trace of the Security Officer who had, apparently, stunned him.

_Arcee…_He thought, recalling the somewhat more alien face he had beheld that was, none the less, easily recognizable. Azure eyes he had gazed into a great many times had looked down upon him with nothing short of irritation. In some ways it had reminded Jack of his first meeting with Arcee in her bipedal form in an alley not far from the K.O. Diner. Though he had been captivated by her and, as she later admitted, she with him, there had been a look of consternation in her eyes, belying the beauty there.

_She…she didn't know me…_For the first time, Jack began to wonder if he wasn't in some type of nightmare, though how such a thing could be in the link between Arcee and Coatzin's mind he couldn't begin to comprehend. Regardless, he now found himself in an even worse off position then before. He had risked his life, gladly, to travel into whatever chaos Arcee herself had entered in the hope of aiding his love in her mission to unravel the secrets of Coatzin's Viral corruption. While he now realized he had gravely underestimated the difficulty of his mission, he could not have anticipated the scenario he now faced. Whatever that was, exactly.

The compartment suddenly seemed to jump, bouncing Jack almost a meter off the metal floor before gravity brought him back down with a hard smack of shoulder on steel.

"Ouch!" Jack growled. "What the hell is going on?" He shouted at the walls. Almost immediately a small section just above his head slid aside, spilling artificial light into the dim space.

"Good. You're awake." Came the unknown Arcee's voice. "Didn't want you causing a panic, though I thought I might have misjudged the Energon level. Glad I won't have to file the extra reports for turning in an Alien Corpse."

"I'm not an alien." Jack shot back before giving the statement further thought. "Well, actually, I guess I kind of am. But, I'm not an enemy to Cybertron!"

"That's funny. One would think friendly aliens would come out and greet themselves instead of skulking around in secret."

Jack couldn't help but laugh at the bitter irony of that statement. On Earth, Arcee and the others were very much the Aliens and had, despite their wish to do otherwise, chosen to remain in hiding save for human allies in the American Government and their bonds with Jack and his young friends. Jack thought it best not to mention that to the Arcee speaking to him. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't try to reach her.

"Please, you have to listen to me. I came her to help you." Jack insisted. "I'm a friend."

"Help me? How? By putting me front and center with Central Security? I don't need the kind of attention this Scrap Storm is going to net me." Arcee fumed. "I'll be lucky if I don't end up in front of the Council explaining how I even found you."

"Believe me, that's the least of your worries Arcee." Jack countered.

Again the compartment jumped slightly, this time tipping forward as he heard Arcee gasp slightly. The sound of something like truck horns sounded and Jack belatedly realized he must have been in a police transport of some kind. Arcee had, essentially, thrown him into a Squad Car.

"How do you know my name?" She asked heatedly through the small opening. "I haven't used it in front of you, and all Com-Calls maintain Service ID numbers only."

"I know more about you then your name." Jack offered. "I know you spent most of your life in Harkon. I know you enjoyed…_enjoy_ spending time in the Stellar Galleries. Wheeljack has been a close friend since you relocated to Iacon and you hated, damn it, _hate _it when he teases you about your choice of vehicle modes. He thinks it makes you look too small."

On the opposite side of the viewport, Arcee gazed, mouth slightly agape, at him.

"I know even more then that." Jack continued. "It's like I said. I'm not whatever you think I am."

Arcee continued to study him for several moments more before the Cybertronian woman turned away, slamming the small window shut. Gravity shifted slightly as Jack felt the transport turn sharply, banking heavily judging by how the teen's stomach suddenly dropped.

After almost another minute of what felt like sharp turns the transport stopped, slamming Jack back against the nearest wall. For several moments there was only silence and then the wall opposite Jack seemed to fold away in segments, shifting much as the Autobots did to change form.

Light from the City beyond spilled in, highlighting the silhouette of the figure now standing before him. Without a word Arcee reached for Jack, sharp fingers wrapping about him gruffly before spilling him out onto the steel platform the Transport had set down upon. Landing none too gently, Jack fought back a curse before shifting to look up at his estranged girlfriend. Starring daggers down upon him, Arcee had produced one of her long blades, it's sharp edge angled away but none the less intimidating. Jack did his best to control the cold sensation that was welling up inside him.

"I don't know how you learned all that, but you're going to tell me or, by the All-Spark, Central won't get you alive." Arcee growled, raising her blade slightly as emphasis. "Are you a Spy?"

"No." Jack answered.

"Did you hack into City Monitoring? Use drones to watch me?"

"Do I look like Soundwave?" Jack replied defensively.

"Who?" Arcee asked.

"Nevermind. Look, before you keep interrogating me let me save you the trouble." Jack offered. "I know all about you…because _you _told me."

"I don't know you. How in Primus's name could I tell you anything if we've never met?"

"It's not that you don't know me, it's that you don't remember me." Jack told her slowly. "Big difference."

"I think I'd remember having long talks with an Alien." She retorted.

"Well…that's kind of complicated." Jack said, trying to find the right course of dialogue. There was a great deal he still didn't understand about the Link, where he was, or how his actions might effect things. There was no knowing what would happen if he told Arcee about everything when, as far as she knew, she was still living on Cybertron long before The War which would cripple it.

"I'm good with complicated." Arcee replied coldly.

"Heh. You have no idea…" Jack answered wryly before Arcee's icy hard gaze brought him up short. "Right, okay. Well, look, I explain things a heck of lot better when I don't have long sharp swords pointed at me, so how about you stow the cutlery and I'll tell you everything. Well, as much of it as I understand anyway. Deal?"

Arcee's stern countenance remained impassive for several seconds more before she merely sighed, recalling the blade into her forearm. Arms crossed, her face gave nothing away as she motioned sharply at him with a jutted chin. "Start talking."

"Okay…" Jack said slowly, taking a long, preparing breath. "Let me say first, as a disclaimer, I'm very much not crazy. Now, with that said, here goes…"

…

Jack hit the back of the holding unit's wall with enough force to knock the wind from him. Dazed and out of breath he tried none the less to plead with the now simmering Arcee.

"I'm telling you the truth!" Jack exclaimed. "You have to believe me, I…"

"Quiet!" Arcee bellowed. "I was an idiot to think you could tell me anything that wasn't a complete pile of scrap. How gullible do you think I am? Cybertron fallen? Decepticons? Mind Links? You honestly take me for a complete idiot?"

"Arcee, I know you're anything but stupid or gullible. Next to Optimus, you're the most level headed being I know."

"Right, Optimus. Our so-called _Leader_, right?" Arcee pointed a long sharp finger at him. "If you know so much, then you know damn well that our leaders are Sentinel Prime and the Elders of the Council. There's no one named Optimus except one of the Original 13, and they've been gone a very, very long time." Arcee frowned at the teen. "Unless you're going to tell me next that they're friends of yours too?"

"No. They are gone, but…" Jack stammered.

"Amazing! Some truth at last." Arcee shook her head in disgust. "I've listened to enough of this. Central's waiting for you. Believe me, you'll tell them what you're really all about if you know what's good for you."

"Arcee, please, don't do this." Jack pleaded. "Somewhere deep down you know I'm telling you the truth!"

"Maybe the Arcee in your fantasy might be that much of a fool, but I'm not her!" The woman retorted, stabbing at the control node which closed the compartment. Once more, Jack found himself in near darkness. Battling the urge to scream, Jack rested his head against the metal wall at his back.

"You are her. You're my Arcee." Jack whispered. "I know it."

The compartment gave a slight shake and Jack knew they were moving again. Part of him wanted to continue pleading his case but another part convinced him it would be folly. For reasons he could not understand Arcee had lost herself to Coatzin's memories. Or even, perhaps, her own. Jack could think of no way to make her remember.

He had hoped that taking Arcee back through their long journey together, leaving out their romance for the sake of simplicity, would kindle her true self. However, his recollections had only incited her fury, resulting in them now being exactly where they had started. Jack a prisoner, Arcee still the unwavering Cop.

"Yeah, this is going well." Jack bemoaned into the darkness.

Nearly a half hour would pass, Arcee's transport crossing Iacon's vast cityscape, before Jack would hear anything further from his captor. Above his head, the Panel slid aside, the ambient lighting spilling in. Jack remained silent, wondering what would come next though silently hoping something he had said had reached her.

"Look, whoever you are, whatever you are, you don't seem…dangerous, at least. If you tell me what you're really doing on Cybertron, and how you know so much about me, I promise I'll do whatever I can to make sure you're treated well. I'm a Peacekeeper, not an enforcer. If you're honest, things will go easier for you."

Jack swallowed hard, knowing anything he told her that he knew to be the truth would only be seen as a lie.

Even if she didn't remember him, his mission was unchanged. He had to keep close to Arcee. Keep her safe. For all he knew, the compromised mind of Coatzin had done this to her and was watching her even now, making sure she could do nothing to stop the virus. But, there were just too many unknowns. He had to keep it simple. For now, staying close to Arcee had to be enough until he could think of what to do next.

"Why don't we start simple, hmm?" Arcee offered. "Why don't you tell me who you are?"

"I…" Jack stammered. _Remember, Jack. Just keep her close. Whatever you have to say. _Taking another breath, he tried to put as much defeat as he could in his voice, doing his best to sound compliant. "My name is Jack Darby, I didn't lie about that. And I am Human."

"Okay." Arcee told him slowly. "I believe you're telling me the truth there at least. Now, how about we try talking about why you're here in Iacon. Why were you sneaking around near the commerce center?"

"I…I was sent by my people, to look for something." Jack ventured.

"And what is that, exactly?" Arcee inquired.

"I don't know. Intel from our Probes only showed us your planet, but they were destroyed before they could learn anything else. Our Leaders thought your people might be coming to attack us next. I was supposed to slip onto this world and plant devices near key points around Iacon. I don't know how they work, exactly, but they were supposed to monitor communications and networks, searching for information about your military."

"If that's true then where are these devices? Did you plant them already?"

"No. I, uh…lost them. My Ship, once it got past your defense grid in space, there was a malfunction, and it went down just outside the city. I ejected and, when I came to, I was in the blacked out area just outside the commerce center. I thought that I might be able to steal a another ship and get off planet, but, then you spotted me." Jack continued to do his best to sound hesitant, though truthful.

"And how did you learn all that personal information about me?" Arcee shot back.

Jack fumbled with that before pulling the proverbial rabbit out of his hat.

"Did you think I was the only Agent my people sent? They've had us gathering information for months. We were given dossiers on persons of interest. I can't say I know why, but, you were in one of the files. I recognized you in the park before you stunned me. When I came to, it took me a minute to put everything I could recall together. Thought maybe I could distract you with a crazy story long enough to get away."

_Ugh. I'm not winning any Oscars anytime soon. There's almost no way she'll believe that. But…fingers crossed? _

From the driver's side, Arcee was painfully silent. Then she sighed, a long, relenting sound.

"Well, at least that sounds more likely then that bit of fiction you spun me before." She told him gruffly. "Still, you're not telling me everything. Your leaders wouldn't send so many spies here unless you were planning something else. Whatever you're holding back it will come out, one way or another. I'd rather you give up that information willingly then have it acquired through alternative methods. Given that you're organic, believe me. It won't be difficult for them to do."

Jack struggled to think of something useful, something that would keep Arcee close by.

"There is…more. But, I won't give it up. Not unless you promise me something." Jack pleaded falsely.

"I already told you I'll do what I can to make sure you're treated fairly. You might be a pain in my ejector port, but I'm still a Peacekeeper. Mistreating prisoners isn't something I condone, no matter what they are."

"I'll need more then that." Jack told her firmly.

"Like what?"

"I'll…I'll only tell them everything else if…if you'll be there for the interrogation."

"What? Why me?" Arcee asked, bewildered by the request.

"Because I trust you." Jack told her. From the opposite side, he could almost feel her doubt rising. She had started to believe him, but his earnestness might have pushed too hard. He quickly back peddled for middle ground.

"I mean, I trust you to be a woman of your word. You could have shot me dead back there, thinking I was too much of a threat to leave alive, but you didn't. You might not have believed everything I said but I believe that you won't see me killed unless I deserve it. And I don't." Jack said trying not to seem overly friendly.

"Where I'm from, being true to your word means a lot once that word's given. Promise is a promise. So, if you give me your word that you'll stay close, I'll tell you everything else once we reach Central."

Arcee was silent, mulling over what Jack had told her and the offer made. Back against the wall of the compartment, Jack wasn't sure if his plan had gone too far, stretching any level of plausibility. Then Arcee cleared her voice.

"Alright then. I can't guarantee Central Security will even allow me to accompany you, but…I give you my word that I'll try."

Inside, Jack felt like cheering. _I'm reaching her. I know it!_ Outwardly he only sighed, trying to show relief of a different sort.

"I guess that's all I can ask." He told her somberly.

"Jack?" She told him after a moment. "If you are a Spy then I can't promise you they won't lock you away until they learn everything about your people. But, if you work with us, perhaps…perhaps we can get the Council to open up a dialogue with your Earth. If your being sent to Spy here is part of some misunderstanding or unwarranted fear, there's no reason things can't be figured out. No one on Cybertron _wants_ War."

_Oh, Arcee. You have no idea how wrong you are…_

"I hope you're right." Jack told her.

…

Iacon Central Security was a massive edifice located just north of the High Council Pavilion and the Decagon, the seats of supreme law, authority, and defense on Cybertron. Rising like a monolith from the surrounding city with jutting steel and chrome buttresses fanning out to either side, ICS had the strange appearance of a giant Eagle or other bird of prey looming over the Capitol, ever watchful for those that would oppose Cybertronian Law.

Jack had little time to admire the grandiosity of the structure after Arcee retrieved him from the transport's holding compartment. He had taken no more then a few steps on the landing pad they had set down upon, Arcee close behind, before he caught site of the ICS welcoming committee. Standing on the bridge that allowed access from the platform and into the complex proper were two rows of Cybertronian Security Units, hulking brutes that resembled Bulkhead almost to a tee, each carrying glowing shields comprised of solid Energon set in an alloy frame. Each of the guards carried energy canons larger, and thicker, then Jack's entire body. That, however, was not what brought Jack almost to a stumbling halt.

Standing between the two rows of hulking guards was a figure Jack recognized all too well, and was a face he had not imagined encountering within the confines of either Arcee or Coatzin's memories.

"Ah, so _this_ is our alien intruder?" The figure observed, his voice almost nasal, high and raspy. "I am most interested to hear what it has to tell us."

At his back, Arcee suddenly took a step forward, almost as if she sensed a threat to the Human she had promised to see safely into holding.

"Sky Commander Starscream. I was not informed you would be overseeing the prisoner's arrival." Arcee told the other Cybertronian with only the barest hint of respect due his station. "To what do we owe this honor?"

"Honor indeed, Officer. There is very little that could draw me away from Orbital Defense, however, as I understand it, this…_interloper_ managed to by-pass my net of sentry patrols, drones, even the automated platforms. I am most interested to learn how, exactly, it so easily managed to leave my Sky Forces looking so very…_ineffective_."

"I see. Well, you are, of course, permitted to accompany myself and our escorts to Holding. I'm sure we won't wish to keep the Director waiting." Arcee exclaimed, keeping her tone civil.

"Oh, you appear to have misunderstood, Peacekeeper. No failing on your part, I'm sure. I requested to escort this prisoner to Holding myself. You need go no further."

"With all due respect, Sky Commander, the Human was apprehended by my hand and, as such, remains under the auspices of the Judicial Caste, not the Defense Force. It remains my responsibility to see him safely into the custody of Central Authority."

"Officer, it almost sounds as if you are suggesting this prisoner would not be safe in my custody. I must, of course, be misinterpreting your…_hesitation_."

"No, sir. I would simply prefer that I be allowed to complete my duties."

"Your duties are complete, Officer. I will take custody of the this prisoner and escort it to Holding. You may return to your Patrol, a job well done."

For his part, Jack watched the exchange in silence. While he hadn't left out the details concerning those Cybertronians who would betray the ideals of their world to join Megatron, it was clear Arcee, regardless of not believing him, had extreme reservations concerning the Sky Commander's presence and intention. He was tempted to speak up, but knew it would likely only cause more trouble then it would solve. One thing was certain however. He could not be taken by Starscream. Whether or not the future Deception was already in the service of Megatron, or even know who Jack truly was, it was clear he had no intention of seeing Jack safely anywhere.

"Respectfully, sir, I would prefer to wait for confirmation from the Director before transferring the prisoner into your custody."

That certainly wasn't what the Sky Commander wanted to hear. Eyes narrowing, Starscream stalked forward, leaving the hulking escort behind. Dropping his voice to almost a hiss, the future betrayer did nothing to hide the consternation in his tone.

"If I didn't know any better, I might see this as a lowly Peacekeeper attempting to countermand my Authority. You are aware of who I am, Officer?"

"Very aware, Commander. However, that doesn't change my position. As a Peacekeeper I am authorized to countermand orders I believe to not maintain the Peace. This prisoner may have been sent to Cybertron under false pretense. Should he come to harm, it could result in conflict with his world of Origin. The Council, I'm sure, would want to avoid that if possible. Were something to happen to this Human, an…_accident_, I would be at fault, thereby risking a conflict with this planet Earth. I would have failed in my duties to maintain the safety of Cybertron's populace."

"This is quite ridiculous, _Officer_. I order you to hand this prisoner over to me so I may see it escorted inside for questioning."

Standing eye to eye with Starscream, Arcee let a measure of ice creep into her voice.

"I'm afraid I can't do that until I receive confirmation. _Commander_."

"You would be wise not to cross me. Those who engage in such action often learn the folly of that choice in a very _permanent_ matter."

"Is that a threat, Commander?"

"Merely healthy advice, Peacekeeper Arcee."

"Noted, sir." Arcee answered curtly. "Now, please return to the escort while I await confirmation from the Director."

The Sky Commander almost growled what Jack could only surmise was a Cybertronian curse of a kind he had not previously heard when a new arrival drew both his and Arcee's attention to the back of the guard escort. Moving towards them was a smaller Cybertronian then the larger guards to either side of him. Despite the gravity of the situation, the newcomer appeared cheerfully oblivious as he moved quickly across the platform. Coming to a stop, the new arrival offered the Sky Commander a quick salute before turning to Arcee.

"Sorry for the interruption, but I wanted to catch you before you took the Prisoner into Holding, Peacekeeper."

Having been caught between the previous confrontation, Jack fought the urge to smile broadly as he beheld the yellow hued messenger.

_Okay…now this is getting wild_….

"I've got new orders from the Director." Bumblebee exclaimed, producing a small cylinder that glowed to life almost instantly, a scrawl of text appearing in the air above it. "Peacekeeper Arcee, CT-6305, is instructed to deliver alien prisoner to the floor of the High Council Chamber to stand for questioning."

BB quickly handed the Cylinder to Arcee, adding, "And I'm to accompany you for added security."

"You?" Arcee inquired only mildly taken aback. "You're just a rookie. You're not even cleared for Patrol yet."

"I know! I was kind of surprised too. But, I'm ready. Don't worry, I'll help make sure this little, uh, alien…thing gets to the Council."

Arcee eyed the eager Peacekeeper, bemused, before handing the cylinder to the Sky Commander who had become even further irate in the wake of Bumblebee's arrival.

"Well, these appear to be orders directly from The Council, Commander. Should I inform them you insisted I hand the prisoner over to you instead?"

Starscream practically vibrated with fury as he scanned the orders, clenching the cylinder so tightly it began to bend. "No…Peacekeeper. It seems my questioning will have to wait."

"Indeed. Well, if you'll excuse me, my new Partner and I should see the Human to the Council." With a nod, Arcee moved Jack ahead of her, following behind with Bumblebee close on their heels. In their wake, Starscream gave the cylinder one final squeeze, breaking the device in his grip as he watched them depart.

"What was that about?" Bumblebee asked, looking between Arcee and Jack.

"Either chest plate pounding or," Arcee added, looking down at Jack curiously. "Something else. Either way, it's over."

"Right. I can't believe I'm going to the Council Hall. And I'm escorting an Alien!" BB said, giving a small jump in his excitement.

"Good to see you too, BB." Jack said with a laugh. "And hear you. Still trying to figure _that_ one out…"

"What the?" The other Peacekeeper exclaimed. "I understood it!"

"Yeah. He's just full of surprises. Or so I'm learning." Arcee murmured. "His name is Jack."

"I can't believe it. So, why did you invade us? Are you invading us? How do you know our language? Why are you so tiny? What are you made of? How do…?"

"Officer! Ease off." Arcee ordered gently. "He'll be answering plenty of questions once we reach the Chamber of Ancients."

"Right. Sorry." Bumblebee said, quieting considerably as they reached the Transport.

Reopening the holding compartment Arcee motioned Jack into it.

"Guess this mean you still don't trust me." Jack told her quietly.

"I'm not sure what to think about you. Something about all of this just seems…off. But I want make sure you're protected. The Transport's pretty well armored, so that's a start."

"Got it. Besides, I still trust you." Jack answered, stepping up into the compartment. Closing it behind him, Arcee moved for the driver's module. Once inside, Bumblebee climbed in beside her. As Arcee brought the Transport online and initiated the antigravity drives, BB looked back at the closed window into Jack's small cell before looking to Arcee.

"Hey, this is going to sound really strange, but, do you get the feeling you've met this, uh, _Jack before?" _

_For a moment Arcee was silent as she piloted the Transport towards the looming golden edifices and domes of the Decagon. _

"_Honestly, I've been thinking that since the moment I saw him." Arcee answered quietly. _

"_It's weird, right?" _

"_Right. Weird…" _

_To Be Continued…. _


	9. Chapter 9

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Chapter Nine

"Decagon Control, this is Central Security Transport Sigma Theta 422, requesting approach vector."

"Confirmed, 422. We have you on sensors. Approach vector is…"

"I hate this part." Bumblebee moaned from the co-pilot's seat. "Why can't they ever just say, 'Hey, we see you. Come on in.' Seriously, would it be so hard?"

"Copy approach, Control." Arcee replied into the open frequency, eyeing the whispering BB with a molten glare. "Will anyone be awaiting us?" She added, thinking of the surprise presence of the Sky Commander.

"The Security Director has a small detachment on the ground, Peacekeeper. Standard procedure for an escort to the Chamber of Ancients."

"Understood Control. 422 out." Arcee closed the line. "Tell me now if you're going to run your vocorder in the Council Chambers, Rookie." She continued, her tone icy. "That way I can weld it shut and save myself the trouble later."

"Good Primus, you need to lighten up Arcee." Bumblebee replied with a sigh. "Things are going to be tense enough in front of the Council. Go in there wound up you'll blow a coil."

The Peacekeeper instinctually prepared to fire back, but relented with a grunt. "I just want this over with as quickly as possible. We hand this Human over to the Council, then it's their concern. I get to go back to a world that makes sense."

"He doesn't seem so bad." Bumblebee countered. "For an Alien. Plus, if he's telling us the truth, then his people are peaceful. Be nice to meet another species that didn't want to wipe us out."

Arcee laughed. "Look at him. Think his people could really pose a threat to us? We've beaten worse."

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Can't help but think this Jack is more then what he seems." Bumblebee replied with an added air of curiosity. "If all Humans are like that, who knows what they can do. I mean, he got past Starscream's orbital grid, didn't he?"

"He did." Arcee admitted. "Or so the Sky Commander claims."

"What does that mean?"

"The Sky Commander's…conduct has been investigated from time to time. Rumor is even Sentinel Zeta Prime has visited the Defense Station in Orbit. Word has it our illustrious Commander was using resources to fuel some kind of experiment."

"What for?" Bumblebee asked intently.

"Don't know. That's way above my Caste Grade. I've learned not to ask too many questions when it comes to the Council or the Sentinel's matters."

"Maybe that's the problem…" BB added under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." The younger Peacekeeper deflected. "Just thinking out loud."

"Yeah? Well watch who you _think out loud_ around." Arcee warned. "You're a Peacekeeper. No one outside the Security Caste needs to hear one of our own voicing descent or doubt."

"Since when is it descent to want to make sure our people are being told the truth?"

"The truth about what?" Arcee demanded.

"About everything!" He countered. "You said it yourself. Other 'bots in positions of authority abusing their power, what's going on with The Games in the Undercity, and a lot of other things."

"Oh, by the All-Spark, don't tell me you're one of these Equalists." Arcee bemoaned. "Harping on about the Caste system being unbalanced."

"Don't you think it kind of is?" BB asked. "I mean, you saw what happened back there with Starscream. If he had wanted to push things, who's to say, when the smoke cleared, that we would have been in the right? Face it Arcee, you got lucky with that bluff about the Director. If I hadn't of shown up with those transfer orders…"

"Luck had nothing to do with it." Arcee answered heatedly. "I knew procedure. And, it just so happened, the Council made the proper call."

"And? If they hadn't?"

"I would have done my duty." Arcee said stoically.

"What does that mean? You would have refused Starscream? And how do you think that would have ended with those Brutes backing him up?" BB observed. "Those drones just follow orders, like you. And they'd be following orders when they smashed you, a Peacekeeper, for defying someone from the upper Castes."

"It wouldn't have come to that."

"Really? Would you have been willing to risk your Spark, and the Human's, to prove it?"

Arcee remained silent at that.

"Right. Thought so." Bumblebee said in a huff. "Look, I'm no revolutionary like that Gladiator everyone's been talking about, but I do think there's something to be said about the Council being more open about what they do and being less restrictive about our role in things. I mean, if I don't think I want to be a Peacekeeper I should have the right to try for something else, right? How's that a bad idea?"

"What, exactly, would you rather be doing Rookie?"

"Well, what if I wanted to be a Solider? Defend not just City Sectors, but all of Cybertron." Bumblebee answered, gesturing to the Glowing world around them. "Why should I have to be one of those Hulking 'bots from the Warrior Caste to defend my home?"

Arcee looked the other Cybertronian over. "I don't know. You look pretty runty to me." She replied with a subtle smirk.

"Hey!" Bumblebee snapped. "I'm tougher then I look."

"Maybe enough to be a Peacekeeper. Stick with that."

"I'm telling you Arcee. Things could be different. Better." Bumblebee told her, almost wistfully. "You should hear what Orion says about it sometimes."

"Who?" Arcee inquired.

"Orion Pax. He's a Scholar in the Archives. The Chief Medical Officer for Central Security introduced me to him."

"Doc Ratchet?" Arcee asked.

"Yeah, that's right. They're old friends."

"Wait. I think I have seen that name." Arcee said, trying to recall. "That's it. I saw his name in a patrol report. He was seen with that Gladiator you mentioned. The one who keeps forming rallies in the Undercity."

"Megatronus."

Arcee blinked. Cautiously, she turned her head enough to observe the small closed shutter to the holding unit in the back of the Transport.

_Megatronus? Jack told me the Decepticons would be led by someone called Megatron. Could it be…?_

Arcee shook the thought away.

_Has to be a coincidence. Besides, he said none of that was true. Just a story, a cover he tried to fool me with._ Arcee could feel a cold sensation in the bit of her cassis. _Wasn't it?_

She had been so eager to believe him, to accept a story that made sense, that she could deal with, that she had yet to think twice about it. Even after encountering Starscream, yet another name the human had mentioned. After a moment Arcee shook her train of thought away.

"Focus." She muttered.

"Huh?" Bumblebee asked.

"Nothing." She answered him, seeing the signal lights for the Decagon hangers ahead. "We're here. Let's get this ship on the ground and get this nightmare over with."

"Sure. I guess." Bumblebee turned to her. "Hey, maybe when we're finished you can come with me to one of Orion's speeches. He's giving one later today in Lower Epsilon sector for the labor Caste."

"I don't think so, Rookie. It's been a long enough day."

"Come on. Please?" BB pleaded. "It's worth going. He's not like that Megatronus. He gives you hope, he doesn't need to rile up the crowd."

"I'll think about it." Arcee replied with a sigh. "Happy?"

"I'll take what I can get."

"Good." Arcee told him, verifying their approach. "And, remember, if you run your voice box in there…

"Welding. I know."

"Glad we understand each other."

…

Jack, tucked away in the holding compartment, had been unable to hear much if anything of the conversation between Arcee and Bumblebee. After a short while, he had simply given up, returning to his thoughts about what he would do next to make Arcee recall where she really was and what needed to be done.

So far, Jack had seen nothing to indicate that the virus slowly destroying Coatzin's mind was present in the Cybertron around them. As it was, Jack was still unclear in who's mind they were and if what he was seeing were indeed memories being augmented to accommodate their presence, or something else entirely. Not for the first time, he admitted that it might have been to his benefit to ask Ratchet a few more questions before deciding on his course of action.

_Too late now, Jack._ He thought. _So…think._

Ratchet had told them that the key to reaching anything of what remained of Coatzin's true self was to find the Assassin within her own memories. Having found Arcee, Jack hoped that if they could find Coatzin perhaps that would be enough to create some kind of recall effect for Arcee. Given that the stricken Autobot had tried to kill Arcee for defending Optimus perhaps setting her sights on the other Cybertronian woman again would be the mental equivalent of ice water on the head. Or so he hoped.

_Not much else comes to mind. _Jack silently observed. _Unless I want to try kissing her for that whole Sleeping Beauty effect. _Jack laughed at the mental image. _Yeah, that would go over well…_

The holding unit jumped slightly, an audible thump rattling through the transport. Jack was already familiar enough with the sensation to know that they had likely arrived at the Decagon. The only question remaining was what would happen next.

While he had asked Arcee to stay with him long enough to make sure he was safe, if she believed he was safe with the Council she would depart and Jack might not be able to find her again short of causing an incident and risking an Energon blast to the back by someone who didn't feel like setting their weapon to stun.

Despite his misgivings the compartment hatch folded away, exposing Jack to a much more immaculate site then the one he had seen at the Security complex. What appeared to be a hangar, alone the size of several football fields and shimmering like polished gold, stretched out before him, filled with ships and vehicles numbering in the hundreds, many of which were Cybertronians merely shifted from their Bi-Pedal forms. Dozens of beings departed, only to be replaced by dozens more. It was clear to Jack, as it would be clear to anyone, that this was the heart of all activity for the Capitol City.

"Yeah, it's something isn't it?" Bumblebee observed, standing off to one side of the hatch as Arcee waited for Jack to disembark. "First time I arrived, I thought my optics would burn right out of my head it was so amazing."

"It's…pretty incredible." Jack admitted. "The description doesn't do it justice."

"You heard about it before?" BB inquired.

Instinctively Jack looked to Arcee, recalling the numerous times she had told him of Iacon and the rest of the world she'd lived in before The Fall. Seeing just this small section of the Council's seat of power, Jack understood why Arcee had always sounded wistful of the memory. Nothing on Earth constructed by humanity compared to it.

"In the…reports I saw back home. We've never been able to see the inside of this place, but our other eyes on the ground sent back plenty of outside images before returning home."

"Right. Arcee told me about that. You humans must be full of tricks if you've been able to slip onto Cybertron so many times without being caught. Until now, anyway."

"Suppose our luck had to give eventually." Jack said with a shrug. "Well, not entirely. I mean, I did get grabbed by Arcee. So, it wasn't all bad."

For her part Arcee only raised her brow at the comment, but said nothing other then, "Let's get going."

The trio moved deeper into the massive hangar, drawing plenty of curious looks from those going about their duties or business. They hadn't gone far before they were intercepted by a small contingent of other Cybertronians, as a whole far less intimidating then the guards that had accompanied Starscream. The escort leader, tall, heavily armored, and stoically professional acknowledged the two Peacekeepers.

"Captain Downshift." The larger Cybertronian rumbled, introducing himself with a nod of the head. "I am to bring you and the prisoner to the Council."

"So we were informed. Lead on, Captain." Arcee told the escort leader.

Without another word, the heavy footed Downshift turned away, taking up the most forward position in the escort, with the rest of the Decagon contingent taking flanking positions around the three.

"Wow." Bumblebee whispered wryly. "I feel all important like."

"Quiet." Arcee warned, though not maliciously.

What now amounted to a small company moved through the remainder of the hangar, coming at last to a series of immense and heavily inlaid doors that parted slowly at their approach, revealing a wide expanse of walkway adorned with intricate statuary stretching high above, the steel underfoot polished to a mirror like quality. Between the statues banners emblazoned with the Sigil of Iacon swayed in an artificial breeze.

Jack could only take in the sight wide eyed.

"The Grand Concourse." Arcee told him. Despite not looking directly at him now, it was clear she had been watching him and his reaction to their surrounding. "It's the most direct path to the Chamber of Ancients."

"Guess they really want to see you, huh?" Bumblebee observed. "Almost no one other then the Council gets to walk this."

"Suppose so." Jack agreed.

"Hey, don't worry. They ask you a bunch of questions and, if you're really not here for anything bad, I bet they'll send you on your way." Bumblebee said reassuringly. "Maybe if you play your cards right, you might end up being sort of like an Ambassador to Cybertron. Next time you come back, you might actually get to see the city without being, well, you know. A Spy."

"That would be nice, BB." Jack told him somberly.

"Quiet you two." Arcee snapped. "This isn't a tour."

"Give her a chance." Bumblebee teased. "Once you get to know her, she's not all bad."

"I know." Jack answered confidently. Though Arcee tried to stare lasers at them, the look was devoid of any real malice.

Though it took several minutes, the party at last reached the end of the concourse, arriving at another set of enormous doors, finely carved with depictions of heroic or wise looking Cybertronians of a Bygone Age. Jack counted the figures, seeing they numbered as thirteen.

"The Original Primes." Jack observed.

For the first time, the escort captain turned to regard Jack curiously. "Indeed." Was all the hulking leader said before turning back to the door, placing his hand into a small recession that glowed as it scanned the Captain for clearance. With a low groaning rumble the immense armored doors parted slowly, opening onto a long stretch of corridor that rose like the ceiling of a Cathedral high above them. On all sides windows of colored silicon and precious stone spilled brilliant light into the corridor, creating an almost kaleidoscopic effect. This time, both Arcee and Bumblebee shared in Jack's awe at the sight before them.

"Anyone have an image recorder?" Bumblebee whispered.

"Forward." Downshift rumbled.

The escort began the long trek down the corridor, with only Jack and his immediate companions looking from side to side at the splendor of their path. Neither Downshift nor his guardsmen seemed to notice.

The total travel time was almost a full twenty minutes before the party at last stood before their final destination. The imposing portal to the Chamber of Ancients, an edifice unto itself, remained sealed as Downshift spoke into a closed com-channel to the Chamber's Inner Guard.

"You know, according to the Histories, this door is made from a piece of Primus himself." Bumblebee remarked as they waited. "It's said only a Prime can command it to open."

"Right. I'm sure the massive security network in this place has nothing to do with it." Arcee mocked.

"You have no love of mystery, Arcee." BB retorted.

"I'm a Peacekeeper. I solve mysteries, I don't spin tales about them."

"What's wrong with stories? You can't tell me there isn't something exciting about even the _thought _that Primus himself forged these doors."

"They're just doors, Rookie." Arcee said dismissively. "I can believe in Primus just fine with or without them."

Bumblebee's only counter was to grumble under his breath as they waited for the portal to open. Muttering a confirmation into his com, Downshift motioned for his Guardsmen to take up their normal positions to either side. While Jack expected the doors to open normally, he was reminded once again of the shifting nature of Cybertronian physiology and building as the ancient portal snapped, twisted, and folded in on itself, thick segments of ancient alloy breaking down block by block as the portal moved into the archway around it and the floor below. After a moment, the way was open completely, and Jack set his eyes at last upon the Chamber of the Ancients and the Council of Cybertron.

Taking the lead, Downshift led them into the Chamber proper. Jack followed, feeling the gravitas of his surroundings for the first time. The domed Chamber, like the corridor behind them, rose like the greatest of Monuments, the very apex of the cavernous space aglow with an almost celestial light.

The walls of the Chamber were a series of interconnected murals, detailing the long millennia of Cybertron's history. Primus, the creation of his Children, and the Great Battles fought to create the civilization that now existed around them. Jack could only marvel at it all. Moving slowly on either side, Arcee and Bumblebee came to a stop, Arcee placing a hand on Jack's shoulder to likewise bring him to a standstill. Before them rose the various seats of the Council.

Mostly in vain Jack tried to recall the names Arcee had imparted to him during some of her various recollections. On occasion even Optimus had regaled both him and the other young humans of their Autobot family with tales of his mentor Sentinel Zeta Prime and the Elders of his race. Six chairs hovered several feet above the chamber floor, in each residing the most unique looking Cybertronians Jack had ever set eyes upon.

Robed, they seemed to loom over the chamber like statues, silent and almost somber. Jack could see very little of their actual bodies; however, rising from the backs of each were elongated golden protrusions that, while cast from the same metallic material as their race, bore a great resemblance to Angel Wings. This, coupled with the grace of the Council Chamber itself, gave the Elders an almost divine quality about them. That, Jack mused, was likely the intent.

The Elders, according to Cybertronian traditions, we meant to embody the collective wisdom of Primus, much in the same manner as the sole Prime who bore the Matrix of Leadership carried a part of their creator's very Spark. It was a heady effect. Gazing up in silence at the Council, Jack could only wait for someone to speak. Thankfully, that part did not fall to him.

"Great Elders," Downshift rumbled reverently. "I bring before you the off-worlder captured by our Peacekeepers." With that Downshift stepped aside to give his three charges the floor. Collectively the Elders remained fixated on Jack, their attention unwavering. Despite himself, Jack swallowed audibly, unable to find any words that felt adequate. Sensing his hesitation, Arcee stepped forward slightly, inclining her head humbly as she spoke.

"Peacekeeper Arcee, Great Elders." Arcee addressed them. "I encountered this Human, called Jack Darby, in the city near the outskirts. While he resisted capture, I do not believe it was done for malicious reasons. He has been forthcoming about his purpose on our World, and swears his presence and agents of his people on Cybertron was for the sake of fact finding with no intent to inflict harm."

From the furthest right corner of the assembled Elders, one of the councilors inclined his head. "So your testimony and report indicated, Peacekeeper." The Elder's voice was gentle, almost melodic, belying the councilor's great age. "And you are to be commended for your swift action. You are a credit to your Caste."

"Thank you, Elder Kudon." Arcee answered, her gratitude evident.

"However," Kudon continued. "We would wish to hear first and foremost from our visitor himself." The Elder revealed a gleaming hand from the interior of his vestments, motioning Jack forward. "Step forward, Jack Darby."

Somewhat overwhelmed by the attention, Jack looked to Arcee for support. Though the Cybertronian woman attempted to conceal any deeper emotion she none the less gave Jack an encouraging nod, a silent promise that she was right behind him. Grateful for that, Jack gingerly moved closer to the elevated chairs and their sage occupants.

"Hi…I guess." Jack stammered. _Hi?_ Jack berated himself silently. For their part the Council only looked on stoically. Quickly he tried to recover. "I mean, thank you for seeing me. To hear what I have to say and not just locking me away." Trying to inject calm into his voice, Jack continued.

"What Arcee told you is true. I wasn't sent here to start a fight between you and Earth. Uh…none of my people were. We just…we wanted to learn more about you. Cybertron and her people are the first aliens we've ever encountered." Belatedly, Jack thought, to his knowledge that was actually true. "Though I suppose I'm the alien here, right?"

The Elders remained silent, their judgments, if any, as yet unvoiced. Aware that he needed to buy time to stay with Arcee and search for Coatzin, Jack fumbled for something that would peak the Council's interest while deeming him no threat.

"You see…my planet, my people, are in trouble. We have expended our world's natural resources, and, when we learned of Cybertron's existence, and of the power source you use to fuel your technology, Energon, we had hoped to learn how your technology worked so we could duplicate it to help keep our cities, our society, alive." Again Jack marveled at how close to the truth his spin resided.

He had learned firsthand almost a year before about the Government's study of Cybertronian technology, acquired through means they had never clearly divulged. The Autobots had even encountered rogue groups like MECH and their leader Silas who sought to seize alien tech for their own nefarious purposes. This knowledge only lent weight to his fictional testimony.

"I realize how this could be seen as something shady. But, I promise, I'm not here to do anything to hurt your planet or your people. In truth, I kind of hope we can start from the beginning. Get off on the right foot." Jack realized no one in the room might understand that analogy. "What I mean is, I know my leaders would want peace." His ideas spent, Jack took a cue from Arcee and bowed his head respectfully, stepping back to stand beside her.

"Well spoken, Jack Darby." The center most Councilor replied, his voice somewhat deeper then Elder Kudon's. "Indeed, we would not want to see our worlds enter into hostilities. Cybertron has fought her battles in our ancient past, and they have all left their scars on our people and our world. We would not wish to see this history so repeated."

"Told ya," Bumblebee whispered. Jack gave the youthful 'bot a brief smile as thanks.

"However," The Elder continued, "We are faced with one unfortunate truth." That caught Jack's attention, as it did likewise for the two Peacekeepers. "This being the revelation that your words, and the reasons for your presence here, are _False_."

Jack could only look on, mouth agape. _How could they know…?_ He wondered in a panic.

"Your eyes counter your previous assurances." The Elder replied pointedly. "It saddens us that you and your species would consider us so easily fooled. Perhaps you see us as mere machines, only playing at being truly sentient?"

"What?" Jack struggled. "I…no! That isn't true." Jack looked to Arcee who now gazed down at him with an unsure, almost wounded expression. "Arcee, it's not true."

"The kindness and trust of our Peacekeeper is shown in her belief that you had truly come to Cybertron seeking only knowledge. Wisdom that could save your world." The Councilor shook his head sadly. "Alas that this is not so."

"It is true!" Jack tried, in vain, to counter. "I haven't come here to hurt anyone. I came here to save…something that I love."

"Perhaps, Jack Darby." Another Councilor added. "Perhaps. However, you would have found this salvation at the expense of many Sparks once your people laid siege to our planet."

"What?" Jack replied, truly stunned. "No one's coming to invade Cybertron! Who told you that? Was it Starscream? He's nothing but a lying traitor!"

"And now he slanders the Sky Commander's name?" Kudon whispered. "How disappointing these humans are."

"He's lying to you!" Jack screamed.

"In point of fact, we have been told nothing from Sky Commander Starscream."

"Then…why do you think Earth is planning to attack?"

"We have been given this revelation by one of our most trusted Agents."

"Who?" Jack shot back angrily, his sense that everything was crumbling around him boiling over his fear and frustration. "On my world we have the right to face our accusers!"

"We are _not_ on your world, Jack Darby." Answered a new voice from the furthest corner of the Chamber, the source concealed in shadow. The voice was strong, echoing within the vast space, radiating authority. Stepping out with reverberating footfalls into the illuminated center of the room came a figure that surely needed no introduction. Heavily armored, though moving with incredible ease and agility, the newcomer gleamed in bright shades of blue and gold with lines of red.

"Zeta Prime?" Jack responded, the name a whisper. "You told the Council this lie?"

"Sentinel Zeta Prime stands as guardian and guide to this Council," the central Elder chastised. "He is no mere _Agent, Human." _

"_Then who?" Jack demanded. _

"_As I have said, while we are not on your world, Jack Darby, I find it is only proper to honor your custom. We are, after all, an Intelligent race." Zeta Prime answered calmly, his countenance stern. "You would face our Agent to deny her claims? Then behold." The Prime motioned with a wave of a massive, gauntleted hand. _

_From the Chamber's opposite end a section of the intricate mural shifted aside, revealing an as yet unseen alcove. From within it came a figure that turned Jack's insides cold. _

"_Scrap…" Jack murmured. _

_Gazing down at him with a look as cold as it was nefarious was Coatzin._

_To Be Continued… _


	10. Chapter 10

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Chapter Ten

"It is as you requested, Jack Darby." Sentinel Zeta Prime observed, his voice like gentle thunder in the grand confines of the Council Chamber. "Your accuser stands before you. Have you nothing further to say in your defense?"

Still struggling to recover, weighing the options that were open to him, which weren't many, Jack stared up into the cold, calculating face of the assassin Coatzin. It was the mentally stricken Autobot that had drawn both Arcee, and in turn Jack, into the strange recreation of Cybertron around them.

The dreamscape, if that is what it truly was, might have been a manifestation of Coatzin's own memories. Even if this proved to be true there was no telling whether the being before him was in fact Coatzin, a self image much as Arcee's own, or something else entirely. Jack had not forgotten for a moment Ratchet's warnings of the Virus, the strange affliction that had twisted Coatzin and drove her to attempt to murder Optimus Prime, and the sinister intelligence which comprised it.

The Autobot medic had hypothesized that within the assassin's fragmented psyche the virus would do all it could to hinder Arcee's, and now Jack's, attempts to stop it. How it would accomplish that Ratchet had been unable to clearly deduce. Standing across from her now, Jack could see first hand the lengths the corruption might be willing to go and the depths of it's calculating nature.

His own presence, and the very fabrication he had created to conceal his true purpose within the world was being twisted, turned against him. What the consequences would be he could only scarcely imagine. Whatever he was going to do Jack knew it would have to be fast and, likely, drastic.

"This," Jack breathed. "Isn't Coatzin."

Around him, the room seemed to indulge a collective gasp. At his side, Jack could even feel Arcee's bewildered gaze.

"The Human Spy grows desperate it seems," croaked a voice from one of the hovering chairs high above. "It would seem deception is deeply ingrained in these organics."

"Be patient, Elders." Zeta Prime advised. "As you have openly done nothing to harm any of our people I am willing to give you a small measure of indulgence. Clarify what it is you mean, human. Why do you believe Coatzin is not who she seems or that she speaks falsely?"

For her part, the Cybertronian woman remained silent, merely observing. While he found her empty attention disturbing, Jack did his best to not allow his fear to show as he spoke.

"She's right. About one thing." Jack answered hesitantly. "My purpose for being here…it's not for the reason's I've said." Above him, the Elders whispered amongst themselves as Zeta Prime eyed him closely, waiting for him to continue.

"Except for the part about saving someone that I love. That _is _the truth." Jack told them, his conviction unquestioning.

"If that is, in fact, the truth of it Jack Darby, then why not approach us directly? Why would you breach Cybertron's defenses and attempt to conceal your presence in Iacon? Evade capture?" Zeta Prime asked. "Why not bring this fellow human to us? Do you think our kind devoid of sympathy? That we would watch another sentient being perish if we could do something to stop it?"

"No." Jack stammered. "I mean…if anyone knows about the honor of some of your people, I do. But…things are…complicated."

"How?" Elder Kudon inquired from above.

"If I tried to explain everything…you'd just think I was trying to fool you again. Or that I was insane." Jack sighed, feeling helpless. "But the one thing I can say without a doubt is that this _agent _is not who she appears to be." Jack said, certainty returning to his voice.

"She's corrupted. There's something inside her, twisting her mind. I don't know what she has planned but if you accept her lies she'll be the reason the woman I came here to save dies."

"Agent Coatzin would never take a life without the sanction of this Council, Human." Zeta Prime responded. "To my knowledge before today we knew nothing of your people. There would be no reason to have her take a human life."

"It's not a _human _life she'll take." Jack shot back. Above him the Council's whispering grew silent, with even the Sentinel's brow raising slightly. "And it's not a human life I came here to save."

"Whom then?" Zeta asked.

Jack nodded. "One of you."

Over head the Council's silence was replaced by murmurs of curiosity and harsh whispers. On either side of Jack, Arcee and Bumblebee exchanged glances, trying to decide whether or not anything their former prisoner was saying could be trusted. Across from Jack, Zeta Prime's gaze narrowed.

"The identity of this femme?" He demanded.

Jack could feel a dull ache in his chest, the desire to look up into Arcee's only slightly different features almost overwhelming in the hopes of seeing some sign of recognition or understanding. That she had yet to speak up in his defense, however, likely meant that she was still without her true memories.

"I…I can't say." Jack relented. "You wouldn't believe me. She wouldn't believe me."

The Sentinel seemed to take a heavy sigh, his disappointment clear. With a shake of his head, Zeta Prime looked to the Council.

"What say you, Elders, to these new turn of events?" He asked.

"We have heard much from the human. He has confronted his accuser and has failed to adequately rebuke her own testimony. I think it only fare to return this gesture in kind. Let us see if it will be different." The center most Councilor crooned. "Agent Coatzin? What have you say on these matters?"

Jack looked on anxiously as the assassin's cold patience seem to melt away, some modicum of life returning to her features. Her eyes, her very poise, seemed to change as she was called forward. As she gave him an almost knowing glance, Jack could not help but feel as though he was watching an actress readying her performance.

"Revered Elders," She answered demurely. "It saddens me deeply, as it has you, to see the sinister nature of these Humans confirmed so. From what I have learned from their intercepted communications they are not a completely barbaric race of organics. Given their success in penetrating our Homeworld it is clear they possess great skill and, perhaps, even an intelligence that mirrors our own." The Assassin turned her back on Jack almost dramatically. "Alas that their intellect is wasted on a predilection to War and Strife."

"I have presented this Honored Council with all decrypted data obtained from the transmissions these human spies have beamed to their own world. As you have seen they possess detailed grid layouts, as well as positions of planetary defensive emplacements. Most disturbingly, they even contain the names of possible sympathizers among the revolutionist movement who might aid an attack on Cybertron in the hopes of elevating themselves from our ordered Caste System."

Jack could feel Bumblebee suddenly tense behind him. Belatedly he wondered if that had something to do with the muffled, though heated, discussion he had tried to overhear from the confinement cell in the transport. Raf had told Jack, during their first year with the Autobots, that the yellow hued guardian had been one of the first to join with Optimus when the War began, having witnessed first hand the rise of the Decepticons from among the lower castes.

Optimus himself had spoken, on occasion, of the Caste system the Council had set into place long ago to maintain order and, as he had put it, "Keep everyone in place." Megatron's eventual rise to power was evidence enough that the actions of the Council had, essentially, sealed their own fate.

Almost at once Jack realized what the false Coatzin was doing. If the virus had as much control over Coatzin, and now possibly even Arcee's memories, it could play off of the recollections of those chaotic days, introducing new factors via neural code to reshape the course of events.

In dreams, a sound heard while sleeping could change what the dreamer was seeing or experiencing. The Virus was achieving the same thing, but from the inside. While Jack was himself an unknown variable, changing the course of Coatzin and Arcee's memories, he did not have the kind of control the virus did. He could only watch as the Puppet-Master pulled the cognitive strings, trying to invade and destroy yet another mind.

"The evidence is, indeed, most compelling." Zeta Prime observed. "While I do not sense any intention of deceit from this human, I can not refute what we have been shown." After a moment's contemplation the Sentinel looked to the raised Elders. "With what has been learned, and witnessed, first hand, what course should we take on behalf of our world?"

The Council mediated in near silence, exchanging only brief words among their number. Stoically, Zeta Prime looked on, waiting patiently. Despite the dire circumstances Jack at last stole a glance at Arcee beside him. She was turned slightly away, either avoiding his eyes or lost within her own thoughts. Crestfallen Jack looked away just in time to observe Coatzin eyeing him intently. The assassin's gaze held a cold satisfaction.

_You haven't won yet asshole_…Jack fumed silently.

"Has the Council reached a consensus?" Zeta Prime asked, his voice an echo in the chamber.

"It has, Sentinel Prime." Kudon declared solemnly. "The Council agrees that this Human has not attempted to, directly, harm any being upon Cybertron. Regardless of the actions it has taken to acquire information of a sensitive nature, it is merely a tool of it's masters."

"Indeed." Echoed yet another Councilor. "When a blade is used against another, the blade itself can not be held responsible. And while this Human has attempted to deceive us with delusions and tales of bewildering fiction, he is, alone, harmless."

"As such," Kudon continued. "We will not consider his presence here, nor the information he has stolen, an act of War. The decisive actions of Agent Coatzin has revealed the weaknesses discovered by these alien spies, and rest assured these vulnerabilities with be dealt with. We do not anticipate the humans of Earth to be a threat worth retaliation."

"Most wise, Elders." Zeta Prime approved.

"However." The centermost Councilor added quickly. "We can not simply permit this transgression against our world's security to go without some consequence. Therefore, it is our final judgment that the human Jack Darby be executed for his crimes against Cybertron and her people."

"What?" Jack exclaimed, eyes wide. "You…you can't do that!" _No…It can't end. Not like this…_

Beside him, the proclamation appeared to shake Arcee from her troubled reverie. Where-as she had avoided his eyes only moments before, the Autobot woman gazed down at him, her face a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. Jack's deceit had left her, strangely, wounded. Yet, hearing the call for execution from the Council had stirred something in her, rekindling the odd feelings which had been weighing upon her so heavily. At War with herself, Arcee took a step forward, drawing both the Council and Zeta Prime's attention.

"Elders," Arcee interjected. "I, respectfully, request leniency in this matter. As you yourselves have said, this human was merely a tool of his masters. Nothing was done by him to attack or directly harm a Cybertronian life. Despite his false testimonies, extinguishing his own Spark seems unnecessary. Surely returning him to Earth with a warning to his people would be the most prudent course of action."

"Peacekeeper," One of the various Councilors answered. "Your compassion is admirable, but misguided. Agent Coatzin has analyzed the human communications and has deemed this the most effective means of countering any future attempts. When they're spy does not return, and they find no vulnerabilities to exploit, they will see the error of what they have perceived of us. They will know we are peaceful, but firm."

"Elder Eronus, I must agree with the Peacekeeper." Zeta Prime added. "It it my place to both protect, and guide, the wisdom of this Council, and it is my belief that taking this human off-line will accomplish nothing save the further aggression of his people."

"As our Prime, we honor your judgment, Sentinel." Eronus replied. "However, this decision is unanimous. While you may object, this is the _Will_ of the Council." Though it seemed the Prime wanted nothing more then to refute the their decision the Sentinel did nothing more then nod.

"So be it." Zeta answered solemnly. "Then let this matter be done. Though I will not see the floor of this Ancient Chamber desecrated." The Prime motioned to the shadows beyond Jack and the two Peacekeepers.

"Guardsmen, escort the prisoner to the High Tower. If he will perish, let him look out upon the stars that he may see his distant world one last time."

Heavy footfalls accompanied the massive shadows that suddenly loomed over Jack as both Arcee and Bumblebee were moved aside.

"Come, human." Rumbled their former escort, the Guard Captain Downshift. "Let this be done peacefully."

Jack's mind was a whirlwind as he tried to process what was happening. All too quickly his mission had spiraled into broken pieces, his hope to protect Arcee a failure. He looked back on all the dangers he had faced both at Arcee's side and even when separated from her, how he had overcome them, always knowing, somewhere deep within, that they would find their way back to each other.

Yet now, separated by only a few feet, Jack had never felt so hopeless.

_No…this can't be it…_He struggled internally. _There has to be something…something else I can do. I can't fail her. Not like this. _

"Arcee." He told her, stepping away from the armored sentries before they could silence him. "You can't let her do this. You have to believe me this isn't the way it's supposed to be. You have to remember. You have to remember the truth."

"Captain." Elder Kudon warned. "Remove the human. The Peacekeeper has surely endured enough."

"Remain silent, prisoner." Downshift told Jack firmly, moving his as gently as he could with the back of an armored hand. It was still enough to nearly send Jack sprawling. Despite the threat, Jack still tried to keep his eyes on Arcee as he was led away.

"Arcee, please, you have to listen to me!" Jack shouted around the armored hand trying to block his sight. "It's you! I came here to save you…" Before she could hear anymore Jack was through the reopened entry to the Council Chamber, his voice quickly receding.

"The Council honors you for your diligence in this matter, Peacekeeper." Elder Eronus told her from his elevated seat. "We will of course see you commended for your service. For now, you may return to your duties."

At that, Zeta Prime touched the massive pronged staff in his grasp to the polished floor, the sound reverberating. "The Council stands adjourned." One by one the Councilors disappeared into the shadows, followed at last by the Prime who exchanged only a brief sympathetic look with the two Peacekeepers. Other then the lingering presence of the Council Agent Coatzin, Arcee and Bumblebee stood alone.

"Arcee?" BB whispered after a moment. "Something about this…it doesn't feel right."

For her part, Arcee looked on in the direction they had taken Jack, her face once more a mask of varying emotions.

"Arcee?" Bumblebee tried yet again. "What do we do?"

In response, Arcee shifted her attention to the still figure of Coatzin who returned her gaze coolly.

"Our duty." Was Arcee's only answer.

. . .

The small procession escorting Jack to the Decagon's High Tower was silent, their focus set to the task given them. In the lead, Downshift maintained a steady pace through the grand concourse that wound it's way through the monolithic complex. Trying to keep up so as to not be pushed or prodded by the guards flanking him Jack tried to fight through the numbness overtaking him. Despite the staggering sense of defeat he had felt in the Council Chambers a part of him still struggled, trying to find a solution, some way to deliver himself from the pitfall which had befallen him. If he perished, the Virus which now seemed completely in control of whatever remained of Coatzin would pursue Arcee, twisting her own recollections, trapping her within her own mind while it took control. If Ratchet or Optimus sensed what was happening Arcee would never be allowed to wake and, eventually, her mind would be lost, her body an empty shell.

_I won't let that happen! _Jack swore, his fists clenched. _Come on, Jack! Time for a Hail Mary pass. Think of something! _

The Council Guards came to a sudden halt, another transforming door before them. From the other side Jack could hear a distant vibration, approaching quickly. As the doors slowly shifted aside Jack's suspicion proved correct as he was ushered into a elevator, the platform built within a glass tube built along the Decagon's exterior. Downshift keyed a sequence into the Holographic interface on the panel beside the doors and at the once the elevator rose, anti-gravity carrying it up and through the transparent confines.

It took only moments to reach the highest tier of the complex, the door parting to reveal a wide circular space and an almost 360 degree view of the capitol. Had Jack not been facing the imminent possibility of his death, he would have been mesmerized by the beauty of the nighttime cityscape.

Oblivious to the vista, the guards moved forward, forcing Jack from the elevator. The escort marched to the center of the observation deck only then stepping away, turning to face him completely. Looking down upon him with as much of an impassive quality as he could muster, Downshift motioned to the windows behind him.

"As the Council has decreed, I will grant you a moment to make your peace, human. If you have an All-Spark of your own, a Creator, speak to him or her now if it is your wish."

Jack felt a bitter laugh creeping up his throat. _Don't think that's going to be necessary. If there is some higher power, I don't think I'm on their favorite's list…_

His levity gave way to a mixture of near panic, then fury, as the Guards took another step away, giving Downshift ample room to aim his energy canon and vaporize the human. Jack entertained the notion of trying to flee, as he had down on the concourse, but knew it was futile. While he had dodged Terror drones and Vehicons on Earth, Jack could sense that the Cybertronians now charged with putting him to death were a different breed. He wouldn't get far. But neither could let himself be killed, not before he knew Arcee was safe.

"Have you made your peace, Human?" Downshift asked.

"No." Jack answered truthfully. "Not that it matters now."

"You have my sympathies, for what it is worth. This…is not something I wish to do. But we serve the Council before ourselves."

"Unfortunately for you, there's going to be a crap ton of others who don't think that way. Sad you never saw it coming."

That remark seemed to give Downshift pause. Whatever his thoughts, however, the Guard Captain dismissed them, producing his weapon. The sound of the canon charging was loud in the silence.

"Arcee." Jack whispered, eyes closed. "I'm sorry."

Downshift raised his weapon, taking aim.

"Captain?" One of the guards interrupted. "Sir, what is that?"

"What?" Downshift remarked, turning to look over his shoulder in the direction indicated.

Jack followed their gaze, seeing a bright light quickly approaching. _Very quickly. The realization was not lost on the Captain. _

"_Great Primus…" Downshift breathed. "Open Fire!" The Captain bellowed, his own weapon already discharging, the energy blasts decimating the thick observation glass, the breach suddenly filling the tower with the roar of wind high above the city. Outside, the vessel which had been barreling towards them sustained multiple strikes, the Transport belching flame as it began to careen off course. _

_The would be attacker was barely within range before it's propulsion systems failed, dropping the craft like a stone to explode somewhere below the Tower. Jack momentarily forgotten the guards and their Captain rushed to the shattered windows, gazing down at the wreck far below. _

"_What was the point of that?" One of the Cybertronians asked bewildered. _

"_A distraction." Came a female voice from behind them. Whirling at the sound Downshift and the other guards tried to bring their weapons to bare, coming face to face with a football sized cylinder that landed between them. Before the Council protectors could evade it the grenade detonated, filling the room with light and sound enough to overwhelm even their sensors._

_Having been left likewise disoriented Jack found himself on the ground, ears ringing, nearly blinded and his head swimming. Somewhere his mind willed him to run, knowing this was the best time. Before he could climb to his feet long fingers wrapped about him, lifting him easily. Though muffled Jack could hear the sound of weapons fire, his captors realizing that they had lost their prisoner. Through a haze Jack could only hold on to his rescuer as they descended on the elevator. They had made it more then halfway down before the lift came to a sudden halt. _

"_Well, that was quicker then I expected." The female voice told him. _

"_Nice…try…" Jack murmured, his hearing slowly returning. _

"_Not done yet." She answered. "Cover your head." _

_Jack did as instructed, feeling the white hot blast of an energy weapon over his head. Looking up, Jack watched as his rescuer leaned out of the makeshift exit, judging the distance, the blob that was her slowly coming into focus. Jack felt his breath give out. _

"_Hope you're not afraid of heights, Jack." Arcee told him, holding out her hand. Feeling as though the world had been set right once more, he took it. _

_To Be Continued…_


	11. Chapter 11

Transformers Prime: The Ties That Bind III

Chapter Eleven

"Well?" Arcee asked Jack, hand still held out towards him. "You coming with me or would you rather take a Holo-Image?"

Giving his head a shake, his senses still somewhat dazed by the Disruptor grenade Arcee had used to rescue him, Jack managed to recover quickly, taking the Cybertronian woman's hand as she helped the teen to his feet.

"Arcee?" Jack exclaimed, practically beaming with equal parts joy and relief. "You remember everything?"

"Nothing I didn't already know when I came out of my rest cycle yesterday morning." Arcee replied, much to his disappointment. "Look, I get there's a lot we need to talk about, but that will have to wait. Priority one, getting out of here in one piece. Agreed?"

"Right." Jack answered with a nod, burying everything else he wanted to say. "So…I'm going to assume you have a plan?"

"I do," Arcee told him, leaning out of the hole she had blasted in the transparent lift tube. "And it requires us to not be in here. We need to move. The entire complex will be lousy with the Council Guard and Sector Security in minutes." She gave Jack a quick once over. "Good thing you humans are so light."

"What do you…?" Jack ventured, his sentence cut short as Arcee grabbed him, holding him close to her as she leapt through the breach. The pair instantly dropped towards the surface level, a wide pedestrian walkway coming up quickly to meet them. Bracing himself, Jack held tight as Arcee's feet hit the metal surface. The path was mostly deserted save for a few 'bots who had taken cover in the wake of falling glass from Arcee's makeshift exit.

"Okay, next step," Arcee murmured to herself, setting Jack down before bringing up a holographic overlay of the Decagon over her forearm. "We need to get _here_. It's a service and maintenance access way leading to the Lower City levels."

"What if the Guards figure that's where we're going? I mean, we wouldn't exactly go out the front door." Jack commented. "Unless you've got another distraction up your sleeve."

"No, that was the only Transport I could crash. I don't exactly have a surplus going."

"Wait. What happened to Bumblebee?" Jack asked.

"Once he knew what I was going to do he came up with the idea for using the ship to pull attention off of you. He preprogrammed the flight path, hence the reason it went down so easily. Said he would get us some help afterward, though I'm not quite sure what he meant." Arcee started moving. "Come on. We can worry about meeting up with him once we're out."

"Right behind you." Jack answered, keeping up as best he could with her fast strides. The pair made their way past the startled administration caste workers, moving back into the complex proper, doing the best they could to stay on the move and avoid sentry cameras. Arcee, with help from her maps, kept a brisk pace.

"How'd you manage to get the blueprints to this place?" Jack whispered close on her heels.

"This?" Arcee queried, holding out the display. "One of the perks of being a Peacekeeper is having access to City Development and Grid Archives. Although something tells me that after today I should probably consider those benefits null and void."

"I'm…I'm sorry about that." Jack told her, his remorse genuine. "I never wanted to wreck all of this for you. I know how much you loved this City and your job."

Arcee stopped short, turning to look at him squarely, her expression, at first stern, softening slightly. "You really believe you know me, don't you. That you're here to save me."

"Because it's the truth." Jack replied. "And deep down you know it to. Why else would you risk everything to save my neck? Because that's what we do for each other. That's what we've done since we met."

Arcee seemed to struggle with that, her face a mix of confusion and frustration, as though she was trying to grasp at something just out of reach. Shaking her head slowly she continued on without another word. Jack chose not to press her.

With perhaps dozens of Guards and Security forces on their heels they would need to focus. If they pulled off the escape completely, then he could try once more to make her remember. With their two biggest obstacles out of the way, they would be able to focus on the matter of Coatzin, how to stop her and, in turn, set things right.

Arcee checked her map once more, noting designations on the walls as they past. "Up ahead." She exclaimed, pointing towards a three way junction in the corridor. "We take the right most passage, follow that down two levels and we're there."

"Unless we have unexpected company." Jack observed.

"I thought I was the pessimist."

"You usually are." Jack admitted. For a moment, he could not help but relish their banter. It felt almost like things were normal again.

They moved down the right passage as the map directed, the corridor taking them down onto what appeared to be a file keeping department, the hall they entered filled with 'bots carrying small stacks of Data-Crystals as they moved from one room to the next.

While most had been intently focused on the tedium of their work, the appearance of a Peacekeeper, and a small organic being with her, brought the workers up short. While the Admin workers and archivists stopped to gawk and whisper none moved to impede their progress.

"Guess they didn't get the Memo." Jack said, giving the bewildered workers a casual wave as they ran past. "No shouts or anything."

"Typical data-pushers. If it's not in their records, it doesn't exist." Arcee explained. "Lucky for us, no one's hit the…" Arcee stopped as a piercing klaxon began blaring through the halls. "Ugh. I had to say it."

"Lesson learned." Jack chided. "Think we should go."

"Agreed." Arcee replied, resuming her previous pace down the remainder of the corridor and through another portal, the new passage curving down yet another level. "One more level and we're almost…"

"Watch out!" Jack warned, jumping up to grab Arcee by her chassis. The air in front of her was split by an energy blast that blackened the doorway they fell back through. Arcee cursed, leaning out long enough to fire several warning shots back down the new passage towards the Council Guards hunkered there.

"Nice catch." She told Jack. "Thanks."

"Yeah, well, we've kind of been in this situation before." Jack answered, flinching as weapons fire pelted the doorway. "Guess it's reflex."

"Sounds like fun." Arcee quipped.

"Well, it's not all bad." Jack explained. "It just gets…_interesting_ once and a while."

"I'm sure." Arcee leaned out, firing another shot. "Okay…two guards, and this cover isn't going to last if they flank us with another squad."

"Any ideas?" Jack inquired.

"Some. Not liking them much, however." She admitted.

"Got another one of those grenades?"

"No, there was just the one on the Transport." Arcee sighed, making a silent decision. "Stay put!" She told Jack, rolling out into the passage, firing as she went.

"Arcee!" Jack called after her.

The Cybertronian woman shot down the passage, sliding and jumping around the energy blasts aimed for her, using the passage walls to rebound from one side to another. Taking one last leap Arcee came down between the two Council Guards, smashing fists and knees against cranial armor.

As one of the guards went down, Arcee slipped beneath the other's melee assault, using the momentum of the guard's swing to put his weapon into the wall. Jumping up Arcee's elbow came down on her opponent's head, knocking his systems senseless. Taking in her work with some small measure of awe, she looked back down the passage to where Jack remained behind cover.

"It's clear!" She called to him. Stepping out from the doorway, Jack moved quickly to join her.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, noticing her confused expression.

"I…I've had to disarm protestors in the lower city before, but…I never imagined I could do…what I just did."

"You've done stuff like this before." Jack told her with a satisfied grin. "Honestly, it always makes me wonder why the 'cons just don't go running when they see you and the others coming. Think they'd learn."

Arcee's face became a somewhat stony mask as she mulled that over. "I'm starting to think you know more about who I am then I do." She looked at him. "Can't say I like the idea of not being who I think I am."

"You'll remember, Arcee." Jack said, reaching up to take her fingers, still twitching from the fight. "I know you will."

For a moment she was silent, then she pulled her hand away, taking stock of the present. "Not if we get arrested, or scrapped. And one's more likely then the other." She warned. "Come on." Leaving the Guards where they had fallen, the pair made for the next level and they're escape.

. . .

Coatzin was not pleased. Or, to be more precise, the entity that had assumed Coatzin's self-memory was unhappy. First, it had failed in it's appointed task to locate and destroy the Prime, after having been so successful at eroding the will of the true Coatzin, corrupting her thoughts as it had been created to do. With it's Cybertronian shell rendered helpless by the intervention of the young human it had thought it's mission a complete failure.

However, the attachment the Prime had for it's shell had proven a boon, with the Autobot leader seeking to expel it from Coatzin's mind. Much to it's joy the Prime had done so by sending another of his ilk, the one called Arcee, into the depths of the shell's broken mind. While strong, the one called Arcee had been taken in by the maze of memories she had encountered. It had not taken much to create a familiar world, one to confuse until all sense of self was muddled, lost in fog. She had given into the illusion, a part of her longing for the certainties of a former life.

While it had been unable to immediately overwhelm the mind of Arcee, taking control of her as it had Coatzin, it had been making progress. That is until something strange, and unexpected, had happened. The human had appeared, something which had not been factored into it's design. Try as it might, it could not connect to the human, the soft creature's mind strange and organic.

Even more perplexing, the lost Arcee had been almost drawn to the human, finding him quickly even amongst the massive artificial cityscape. Though Arcee had not remembered the one called Jack, something buried deep within had softened her past stoic and hard nature. Despite the obstacles it had tried to throw in Arcee's way she had sought to do her duty, yet protect the human.

When Jack had been brought before the Council, Coatzin had seen her struggle when both she and the Council had cast him in doubt, exposing the series of lies he had used to buy himself time in a likely attempt to bring out the true Arcee's memories. He had been foiled, and Coatzin had rejoiced when he had been sentenced to death. However, watching the struggling Arcee, it had been concerned. Something in the Peacekeeper's face gave it pause.

Despite the victory, it suddenly thought it wise to use Coatzin's skills to it's benefit. It had faded into shadow, watching Arcee from a distance. It's suspicions had proven correct. The Peacekeeper and the one called Bumblebee had set into motion a plan to rescue the human, first crashing they're transport into the High Observation dome, escaping the Council Guards.

Now, Arcee and the human were making their way to the Lower City. While it had been in control of Coatzin's and, to a lesser extent, Arcee's memories, with the arrival of the one called Jack it found it could manipulate the memories less and less. Now it's control was almost completely gone.

It could not change what was perceived by Arcee, and it could sense her true self slowly reemerging. And it also sensed something new, something in the construct's Lower City that was a threat, as great a danger to it's plans as the human. So, it had decided to no longer play the part of the puppet master. It would take matters into it's own hands. While it could no longer manipulate the memories, it was still a part of the world. Stepping out onto the platform across the Undercity transit-way from the Decagon's sealed access door, it waited.

. . .

"There!" Arcee exclaimed, pointing out the massive steel doors at the far end of the passage. "That's the maintenance access."

"And with no time to spare," Jack observed, looking back the way they had come. "We've got company."

Turning about Arcee could see the full squad of Council Guards backed by a unit of Peacekeepers moving quickly towards them. "Right. Move." She commanded.

The pair sprinted for the door, Arcee hitting the activation panel at a dead run. An angry bleat was the only response. "Scrap!" Arcee cursed, slapping the wall beside the panel.

"Let me guess…" Jack ventured.

"They locked out the system." Arcee growled her frustration as she looked back at the approaching security force. "I can override the lock, but it'll take time. I can't do that _and_ keep them pinned down." The Cybertronian woman locked eyes with Jack. "I'm sorry. I wanted us to get out of here. Together."

"I know." Jack told her, placing his hand atop the armor plate of her leg. "At least we found each other. We always do."

"Halt!" Came a deep familiar voice. Weapon's raised and leading the Guard was Downshift, seemingly recovered from the Transport crash and Disruptor attack, the only sign of the escape being small burn marks across his otherwise well polished chest plates. "The two of you will stand-down and submit to the authority of the Council. Refuse and you will be terminated."

"You're not taking him!" Arcee warned, cannons out and armed.

"Arcee, don't." Jack pleaded. "There might still be another way."

"No, Jack. You're too important. None of this…none of this is right. I wanted to believe it was, but from the moment I found you I knew something was wrong. I thought it was you, but it's me. It's this place. It's not the way it should be. But I know you can set it right." Arcee's face grew hard, a new determination falling in place.

"I'll hold them off, keep them focused on me. You run. Try to get out of here. You might still be able to get out of the complex. If you can get to the lower city I know Bumblebee will find you. You'll be safe."

"No!" Jack shot back. "I lost you once. I'm not going to watch it happen again."

"Jack…"

"I'm not going anywhere. Doesn't matter if it's in a dream or some other world, my place is right here, next to you."

"Surrender now!" Downshift shouted, shattering the moment between them. "I won't ask again."

"Right then." Arcee told Jack, the smile on her face like one he had seen so many times before. "Together."

"Guards, prepare to open fi…" The Captain's words were cut short by the keening alarm from the access door behind the two fugitives. With a dull groan the portal broke apart, sliding in two pieces away and into the doorway, exposing the hazy air of the lower city beyond. And the armed gunship on the other side.

"Get down!" Yelled a voice. Instinctively Arcee grabbed the human teen, rolling away. At once the maintenance room was awash in laser fire, the lances of energy blanketing the ground and walls around the security force, pushing them back as they scattered for cover of their own. On the side of the gunship a hatch was slid open, revealing a franticly gesturing Bumblebee. "What are you waiting for, an invitation?"

Jack in her arms, Arcee shot for the door and they're freedom. The gunship hovered several feet from the door, though the gap did not serve as a deterrent. Dodging return fire from the Council Guards, Arcee leapt, coming down hard into the cab of the ship. Bumblebee slammed the hatched closed behind them.

"Let's move! They'll have Sector Security up our tailpipes any second!" BB called to the pilot. It's new passengers secured, the gunship roared away, diving like a stone into the depths of the lower city. After a moment, a smaller and far more stealthy vehicle followed.

. . .

"Wow, Jack. You've certainly helped stir things up." Bumblebee told the human, the pair of them looking up at the holographic display with it's security alert above the lower city market. The pair stood sequestered in a small alley between two of the market district's larger stores. "Word is the Council is working overtime to keep news of you and Arcee escaping on the down low. Guess their afraid it might get the people to thinking they're not as all powerful and wise as they want us to believe."

"Yeah…can't say this is how I imagined things going when I came to keep Arcee safe." Jack lamented. "I never wanted to turn this into a nightmare."

"Change is rarely a thing which passes with ease." Bumblebee replied, his voice taking on a familiar tone. "Orion told me that once. I'm sure that's as true on your world, right?"

"It is, though that wasn't exactly what I meant." Jack told him. While he was keenly aware that the world in which they inhabited was simply a construct of manipulated memories, Jack refrained from speaking of it. While it wasn't real he could not help but wonder if the years leading up to the War which had eventually divided Cybertron's people and left the world lifeless had seen the same kind of change.

"Has Arcee called in?" He asked, hoping to change the subject. Once they had been dropped off by the gunship, the vessel the property of a smuggling cartel Bumblebee had some form of ties to, Arcee had went in search of a Com-Terminal, hoping to get in touch with one or more of her former Peacekeeper allies, those she felt would not be so quick to deem her a traitor and fugitive despite what the Council of Ancients had declared in light of her and Jack's escape. If at least one Peacekeeper remained on her side, they would have some measure of information as to where Iacon's security forces were being dispatched and, more importantly, how to avoid them.

"Don't know if she had any luck, but she should be back soon. Then we can get a move on. Hate staying in one place." BB told him.

"Where are we going, exactly?" Jack inquired.

"Only place I trust to help." Bumblebee explained. "We could go to Megatronus and his followers, but something about that 'bot bothers me down to my gears. He talks about reform and change but I don't think for a second that's what he's really after, you know?"

"Yeah," Jack answered carefully. "I'm sure you're right."

Bumblebee nodded in appreciation, then gestured over Jack's shoulder. "Here she comes."

Turning about, Jack could see Arcee working her way through the market. This low in the Undercity, if anyone recognized her from the security alert none would be quick to point her out; to those who perceived themselves as the downtrodden, she was now one of them. Arcee favored Jack with a warm smile, then nodded to Bumblebee.

"Thanks for keeping him safe." She told him.

"No problem. Besides, we've all stepped in it together, right?" He asked with a laugh.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Arcee told him with a slap on the shoulder.

"Did you have any luck with your Peacekeeper friends?" Jack asked her.

"Only one I could track down was Wheeljack. Thankfully, he was the right one."

"What's the news?" Bumblebee inquired.

"Couldn't tell me much. Looks like they figured I might turn to old friends on the force for information. The higher ups are keeping their plans close to their chest." Arcee's frustration was evident. "All he could say for sure was that the Council has demanded Sector Security be mobilized for a big push. Looks like they're worried that our escape might insight Megatronus and his movement to up their game, even if we don't have anything to do with him."

"Well, no worries." Bumblebee assured them. "If we can get in to see him I know he'll have a plan."

"Who?" Jack asked.

"Orion Pax."

"Wait, _that's _who you planned to go to for help?" Arcee asked incredulously. "How's an Archivist going to help us?"

"He's more then that, Arcee. It's like I told you before, he's inspiring the people to change things. He's not just looking for a fight like Megatronus. The working castes already see him as a leader. If we can tell him what's happened, he'll know what to do next without us having to fight every Peacekeeper and Council Guard in the City, let alone on the planet."

"I don't know…" Arcee groaned.

"He's right." Jack told her suddenly. "Bumblebee's right. If anyone can help us, it's Orion."

"How can you be sure?" She asked him.

"I just…am." Jack said with a shrug, knowing a full explanation would be too complicated. "We can trust him."

After a moment Arcee merely sighed. "Well, it's not like we have a better option."

"Stellar!" Bumblebee exclaimed, his enthusiasm renewed. "Come on. That speech he was supposed to give should be finishing up soon. We should be able to catch him before he heads back topside."

"Lead on." Arcee agreed. "But, let's be careful. We might not get handed over to security down here, but that doesn't mean these 'bots are friendly."

Taking Arcee's warning to heart, the trio began the walk across the lower city market sector and towards the industrial district.

. . .

"Ratchet!" Bumblebee called, waving to the singled out Cybertronian across the small square. The crowd that had milled about in the wake of Orion's speech took notice, though if any among them recognized the yellow hued former Peacekeeper none made an effort to point him out. Jack, for his part, could not help but stare somewhat slack-jawed at the sight of the familiar, if somewhat different, medic.

"Bumblebee?" Ratchet asked, his eyes suddenly looking as if some danger were about to descend. After a moment, he appeared content that they were not at any immediate risk.

"We saw you on the security alert. By the All-Spark, we could scarcely believe what they were saying." Taking notice of Arcee the medic, likewise, took note of the human beside her. "Ah. And so we have the source of all this commotion."

"Nice to see you to, Ratchet." Jack answered sardonically.

"You know me, human?" He inquired.

"That's, uh, kind of complicated."

"I'm sure it is." The medic turned back to Bumblebee. "I take it you wish to see Orion?"

"Yes. If we're going to figure out what to do next, we need to talk with him."

"Hmm. Yes. Well, it just so happens he has been quite anxious to speak to our…visitor since learning about what transpired at the Decacon." Ratchet waved them along. "Come. He's speaking with a caste delegation. Hopefully they're about finished."

The trio followed the medic to a small structure just off the central square, the building appearing to be a kind of hall for Cybertronians of the worker caste to congregate and socialize. The auditorium was mostly empty now, save for a small clustered group at the far end. Even from their distance Jack could discern a tall red and blue figure in their midst, and for the first time since finding himself in the strange dreamscape about him, Jack could feel his fears subside.

"Orion?" Ratchet called gently. "I'm sorry, my friend, but, there is someone here to see you."

Looking out over the assembled representatives, the face of Optimus Prime greeted them warmly, his curiosity plain to see. Recognizing the three 'bots who had intruded on the discussion the various delegates whispered to one another.

"Please, forgive me. This is a matter I must see to." Nodding their collective understanding the caste representatives filed away, giving Orion their thanks and casting obvious glances at the human fugitive. After a moment, the hall was empty save for the five of them.

"Greetings Bumblebee. It has been too long my young friend." Orion said, taking the other Cybertronian by the forearm. "You and Peacekeeper Arcee have been making interesting news of late. Upper Iacon has been quite worked up by the rumors sweeping through the city."

"Sorry about that." Bumblebee said sheepishly. "Maybe if the Council hadn't been fooled into killing an innocent being none of this would have happened."

"Indeed. It is a sad turn of affairs. Sadder still when I learned from my mentor Zeta Prime of whom it was that pointed the finger of accusation. This is…so unlike her."

"Jack might have an explanation for that." Arcee chimed in.

"Indeed." Orion observed, studying Jack as intently as Zeta Prime had in the Council chamber. Striding forward, Orion bowed his head in greeting. "I have been looking forward to meeting you, Jackson Darby. Sentinel Prime's description of you and your quality would appear more then accurate. Though his concerns may likely prove justified. Both he and I would be quite eager to know the truth of why you are here on Cybertron. He claimed you kept this information for fear it would not be taken as truth."

"Even you might have trouble believing it Opti…I mean, Orion." Jack answered, catching himself at the end.

"Perhaps. However, I would hear it all the same. While the truth may be difficult to accept, that does not mean it should be left unsaid." Orion beckoned Jack to follow him as he moved away. "Please, come. I would hear what you have to say, then we will share it with the others."

Exchanging a quick look with Arcee, who nodded to him reassuringly, Jack moved to join Orion.

. . .

"How long ago?" Coatzin asked the caste worker, her long blade resting against his neck.

"Not…long. Less then a few minutes. We left them to speak." The representative eyed the bodies of his fellow delegates piled about them on the now empty street. The attack had been sudden, swift, and deadly. The Agent giving no cause as to why until all but one of them had been slain.

"And there are no others with them, save for the Medic?" Coatzin inquired.

"None. The hall is empty."

"Good. Thank you for being truthful with me."

"Then…I may live?"

"No." One quick movement, and the representative was joined with his fellows. Bothering to take no stock of her work, Coatzin moved for the Hall.

. . .

"…then I found myself here, though I'm still not quite sure what all this is. Mixed up memories, or Arcee's dream." Jack finished, feeling as if, at last, a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "You pretty much know all the rest that leads up to us coming here to see you."

Silent, Orion's gaze looked up, as if searching the high ceiling above, or, perhaps, even past that, for answers or some form of guidance. Jack had held nothing back as to who he truly was and where he had come from. He had told Orion of his, in a fashion, future as Prime, the War, the fall of Cybertron, and all else that would follow. Not once had Orion interrupted to ask questions, his only reaction a gentle nod or a subtle motion to continue speaking. Now that all had been laid out on the table, Jack wondered at what would follow.

The Cybertronian before him, while having the face, mind, and body of Optimus Prime was not yet the leader he would become. The Matrix of Leadership would not be entrusted to him for some time and, as such, the Wisdom of the Primes was not yet his. However, Orion's compassion and wisdom was very much present, and it was in this that Jack placed his faith, and hope.

At last, the future Prime sighed, eyeing Jack almost somberly. "Alas, this is a matter greater then I. Greater, in truth, then us all." Orion began to pace slowly, his features contemplative. "I do not doubt the sincerity of your words. Even now, as we speak, I have tried to recall that which has come before and I find my own memories…strange. As if seen through stained glass. There is something wrong with this world and I believe it is for the reasons you have said. We are not real, nor is this our beloved Cybertron."

"I'm…so sorry, Orion. I don't know what else to say." Jack answered mournfully.

"There are no apologies required. I am not Orion Pax, only an echo of who he was in memory. For the love I feel for my world and my people, for the freedom and joy I wish them, I take great honor in being even that."

"Then…you know what I have to do?" Jack asked.

"This dream must come to an end, least it become a nightmare that never ends. I do not have the wisdom or the power to do this. However, I know where it can be found."

"Where?"

"With Primus, who's Spark rests in the very heart of Cybertron."

"That's right…You, I mean Optimus, went into Cybertron and got the Matrix from Primus." Jack wondered at something. "But, wait, if this is a dream, Primus won't be real. How will he be able to put things right?"

"While small, there resides in every Spark a small piece of our creator, and it his wisdom which guides us to better ourselves. Those who choose a darker path have simply chosen to no longer listen or they have chosen to be swayed by the evil whispers of Unicron."

"So, you mean, even if this is a dream…"

"We are still within the mind of Arcee, or perhaps Coatzin. Perhaps both at once. Buried within them is the wisdom of Primus. We have but to seek it out."

"Right. Okay. Let's do it!" Jack proclaimed loudly, his excitement drawing curious looks from Arcee and the others. "Sorry. Anyway, how do we even get there?"

"We must travel down, following a path deep into Cybertron. We will listen, and I believe the whispers of Primus will guide us."

"Guess I'll leave that to you and Arcee. I don't think my brain is very Primus compatible." Jack mused.

"Do not be so sure, Jack Darby." Orion observed sagely. "One has to wonder if you have been driven this far merely by the love you bare for Arcee, or by something more."

"I don't…"

"Jack!" Arcee called out, her alarm bringing him quickly about. Both he and Orion stared in shock at what they found. Moving across the hall towards them, her stride purposeful, her features and demeanor cold, was Coatzin.

"Take another step and I'll drop you, whatever you are!" Arcee growled.

"Arcee, no!" Orion warned, moving quickly to stand before her. "Yours and Jack's future resides along a different path. It will not end here. Go, Jack knows what you must find to bring all of this to an end, to give you back your lives."

"What?" Jack asked, a sick feeling coming to him. "What about you?"

"You have a greater destiny, and must escape this place. Of that, I have no doubt." Orion turned to face the approaching Assassin. "Go, my friends."

"No, you can't…" Jack tried.

"Fear not, Human." Ratchet exclaimed, moving to stand by Orion's side. "He will not face this alone. If he says you must go, then go!"

Arcee moved to stand beside Jack, her weapons still tracking Coatzin's approach. "Jack, we can't waste anymore time. If we can fix all of this, then we have to go."

"She's right Jack. You guys better get a move on." Bumblebee added.

"BB? No, you have to come with us." Arcee ordered.

"Sorry, partner. But we're not Peacekeepers anymore. No orders for me." Bumblebee brought out his own weapons. "You two have a better chance of getting a head start the longer we can keep her occupied."

"He's right, Jack." Arcee agreed, her voice heavy. "We…we have to go."

Jack looked to all of them, feeling as though he had once more destroyed a memory that did not belong to him. "I'm so sorry for this."

"Don't worry about it, Jack." Bumblebee said with a grin. "If Orion thinks you and Arcee are supposed to do something important, then that's enough for me. Now, I hate goodbyes. So get going!" With that, the former Peacekeeper was gone, running to join the proverbial line which has been drawn in the sand.

"Jack?" Arcee told him softly, but firmly. "We have to go."

Sparing them yet one more look, Jack nodded. "Orion said we have to go down. Into the heart of Cybertron."

"I think I know a place to start. Come on." Then Arcee was moving quickly, Jack close on her heels.

Behind them the Assassin watched them go, then shifted her gaze to the three Cybertronians in her path.

Orion Pax looked calmly into her eyes. "Whatever you are, you will not win."

The face that stared back with empty hatred was Coatzin's. The un-natural scream that tore from her mouth before she leapt was not.

. . .

"That's it, down there." Arcee told Jack, pointing down at what appeared to be a massive sewer drain. "It's one of several hundred around the planet. Waste that can not be repurposed is dropped through there to the furnaces deep below the surface."

Jack, his mood still somewhat somber and grim in light of their second escape, gave the artificial chasm a closer look. "You want us to drop down into a pit of fire?"

"The furnaces are thousands of miles down, and it's not like it's going to be a straight drop. We just need to find the service conduits that run down alongside. Most likely haven't been used in millenia, but they should still be intact. We can use those to go deep into Cybertron's interior. What we do after that, I don't know."

"Orion said we'd have to listen. And that Primus would show us the way." Jack told her.

Arcee, for her part, seemed to stare blankly, seemingly trying to process what she had just heard. "Well…let's hope he knew what he was talking about. At this point, things are so upside down and inside out I'm not going to discount anything being possible. Come on." With that, Arcee took the lead.

The pair traveled in reletive silence for some time, moving quickly through dilapidated Undercity structures and tunnels working they're way towards the gaping maw in the lower city's surface. After a time, Jack at last broke the quiet.

"Do you think they're…?" Jack asked.

"Best not to think about it. We've got enough to worry about. If we have to…we can mourn them later."

"Right."

The descent continued on for almost an hour before the two of them, at last, walked out onto the pitted surface surrounding the top of the chute. Jack could see, just as Arcee had explained, blackened and eroded steps leading from the surface and into the shaft. To say the steps looked unsafe was being generous.

"Uh, Arcee?" Jack inquired.

"I know. We don't have a choice though. It's the only way down that I know and we don't have time to look for another." Arcee responded. "We'll just have to take it slow."

Jack only nodded. With nothing more to say, Arcee took the first step, testing her weight against it gingerly. If it held her, it would certainly pose no risk to Jack. The first step proved stable enough, as did the second, then the one after that and so on. Arcee had managed several steps before she felt it was safe. She turned back to look up at Jack.

"Alright. Just take it slow. These weren't exactly built with humans in mind." As Jack leapt down from one step to another that fact was clearly evident.

Sparing a glance over the side of the service stairwell, Arcee regarded the deep chasm of darkness. Even though her sensors could not gauge an accurate depth, she knew it was going to be a long way going. Chosing to focus instead on protecting Jack, Arcee committed herself to the descent.

. . .

After nearly a day's worth of travel, the pair finally reached the tunnels running near the furnace. Though in poor repair the passages were not impassable and once the stairwell was far behind them they made good time. Much as Orion had believed, both Jack and Arcee had begun to feel…compelled. Ushered forward as they moved from one tunnel to the next, their path taking them ever downward. Some might have feared it was a descent into hell itself; however, Jack could only feel a growing sense of something old. Something powerful and, especially, ancient.

Arcee mirrored what he felt, marveling at it. Moving together in the near darkness, the light beam on Arcee's forearm guiding the way, it wasn't long before they had traversed deeper then perhaps any Cybertronian for millennia. Jack was aware that, in the true course of events, it had been Orion Pax who had made this journey. But the dreams, or memories, had taken a very different turn, and now he could only see it through.

"Jack." Arcee said suddenly, brought up short, her voice almost a whisper.

"I know." He told her. "I can feel it too." The end of the tunnel before them seemed to grow brighter as they took one slow step forward after the next, the light almost blinding at it's apex. With one last step they moved from the tunnel and into the presence of something which Jack felt he would never be able to describe. In a massive, cavernous chamber, shining like a sun and encased in plates of gold that flowed across the surface in gorgeous patterns, was what they both new to be what Orion had found long, long ago in the deep heart of Cybertron. Before them swirled the Spark of Primus.

"It's so beautiful." Arcee whispered. "I never even imagined…"

"This would defiantly stir up a religious debate or two back home." Jack agreed. The pair stood there in awed silence. It was several moments before Jack realized that Arcee had wrapped a hand about him, holding him tightly. Looking up at her face he knew that, were it possible for her to do so, tears would be welling beneath the optics that were her azure eyes.

Suddenly, Jack felt a change, like the world was shifting before him. The armored sun seemed to grow brighter, a new light washing over them. To Jack it felt like warm water upon cold skin, deeply soothing. When they at last heard the voice, they were both shaken.

"_You have come. A long way_." The voice called to them. "_And I welcome you_."

Jack swallowed audibly. While not fearful, his heart still hammered in his chest. "Are…are you Primus?"

"_I am Creator. Both Father and Mother to my Children_."

"I, we, were told to come here. By Orion Pax. We need your help to end this…whatever this is. Give Arcee back her true memories. And, hopefully, save another's life as well. Another of your children."

The living star was silent. That silence seemed to stretch for an eternity.

"Great Primus." Arcee said solemnly. "I have come to see that this is not my life. That I am needed," she looked to Jack. "And loved, in a place other then this. I was lost, but Jack Darby found me to bring me home. To bring us both home. If you can, I beg you, show us the way."

"There's something coming. Something twisted and evil that is trying to consume Arcee so that she can be used as a weapon against one of your Primes. The Last Prime. If we can find our way out of here, and find a way to save the one who's been corrupted, then Optimus Prime will be safe."

"There must be something which can be done." Arcee exclaimed.

"There isn't." Came a voice like ice at their backs. Both spun, Arcee drawing her guns as she did so. Coatzin stood there, her body, her true form, appearing to be wreathed in coiling shadows like a mist, eyeing the star with eyes full of malice. "You ask questions for which there are no answers." She looked to Jack, a smile on her face. "There is no Primus."

"I don't believe that. I don't think you do either." Jack told her squarely. "If you did why follow us all the way down here if there wasn't something that could stop you?"

"The shell that bares this face will soon be of little use to me. However, the shell of Arcee still functions. I need only remove that which gives her purpose and what is left of her mind's defenses will crumble. I will claim her existence and I will fulfill the will of my Masters."

"Don't count on it, slag." Arcee growled, taking aim.

"Wait." Jack said. "What masters? Are you talking about the Decepticons?"

The thing which wore Coatzin's body laughed, a sound out of nightmares, like a child torn by insanity.

"The Decepticons are abominations, as those who follow the Last Prime are abominations. They will fall, all will fall before the coming of those who will lay claim to all the stars to build an Infinite Empire."

"If you're not Decepticons, then what are you?"

"We are your doom, and your destiny."

"What you are is scrap!" Arcee yelled, letting loose a salvo of energy blasts. Then the thing which was Coatzin was moving, a blur of motion, like shadow, the air around her seeming to warp and bend as she avoided each shot. Then she was upon Arcee, lifting her as though she weighed but a feather, slamming her down with enough force to crack armor and polymer. Coatzin's hand closed around Arcee's neck, squeezing.

"I can not kill you. Doing so would leave your body useless. Something of you must survive, at least for a time. But I will silence you, then silence this flesh creature. Then I will complete my mission."

"No…Jack…" Arcee gasped, trying to struggle against the unbreakable grasp.

Jack looked about, trying to find something to fight, though knowing it would useless. In the real world it had taken a complex EMP device to bring the Assassin down. Here, there was nothing but memories. Unless…

"Please!" Jack pleaded, turning to the Spark of Primus. "You must do something. Even if he was only a memory, an echo, Orion Pax believed. I've never doubted Optimus Prime, and I won't start now. I know there's something of you here, something real. You have to help her. Please! I don't care if I make it out of here, but you can't let her die. Please! Please!"

"Your words fall on emptiness, human. There is no Primus. This shell believed she served the will of Primus. An Illusion as that is an illusion. We silenced him long ago."

"Shut up!" Jack screamed. The thing which wore Coatzin laughed.

…_Fall…_

"I said shut up!" Jack yelled again. _Wait,_ he thought.

…_Fall_…It said again. The voice without malice.

"No. I can't fall. If I do she dies. I won't loose her again!"

…_Fall…and wake…_

"What?" Jack asked. Behind him, the Assassin looked between him and the golden star.

…_Fall…and wake…_

"Wake." Jack thought aloud. "It's a dream. It a _dream._"

"No…" Coatzin hissed, the shadows about her beginning to writhe.

Jack turned to the creature. "This is all a dream. But I had it wrong. It's not in your head, _or_ Arcee's. Is it?"

Coatzin released Arcee, rising up and stalking towards him.

"Your in _my_ head, you bitch!" Jack yelled. "Your in _my_ dream! And how do you wake up from a bad dream?"

Coatzin screeched, reaching for him…and Jack ran, sprinting for the edge of the platform. Then he jumped, the deep abyss rushing up to meet him. Then all was darkness and silence.

. . .

…_before you wake…see…_

Hard stone was beneath his cheek. The air that filled his lungs was hot, burning his chest. Jack's eyes opened and he stumbled to his feet coughing though smoke and ash. Looking about him Jack was only greeted by a hellish wasteland.

"Don't tell me…" He moaned.

"Jack?" She called from nearby.

"Arcee? He asked with a jump, searching the wasteland for her. She was there, nestled in the ash covered soil. He ran to her. "Arcee? Are you alright?"

She opened her eyes to look at him, and he saw something there, something familiar.

"Jack? Where are we?" She murmured, confused.

"You know me?" Jack asked her. "I mean, you _really _know me?"

"Yes…" She told him. "What happened? Last thing I remember…the Cognitive Patch…Coatzin…"

"It's a long story." Jack told her, eyes full of tears.

"But, where are we?" She asked.

"I don't know. I woke up, then…" Jack paused. "Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"It told me to see." Jack thought aloud.

"See? See what?"

Then the ground underfoot began to shake, a violent wind whipping past them, pushing away the smoke and the ash, exposing what lay all around them. Bodies. Cybertronian bodies, both Autobot and Decepticon, piled high in the burning earth.

"All Spark…" Arcee whispered. "Jack…I recognize this place."

"What are we seeing?"

"The past." Arcee breathed. "Coatzin's."

As if to confirm that a light filled the sky, illuminating the battlefield. In the center of a mound of shattered Decepticon drones was Coatzin, her body broken, the last thread of life in her spark slipping away.

"This…this is the Battle of the Line, isn't it?" Jack said. "After you all escaped."

The two of them watched as the sky over head, lit like a sensor board, filled with a roar like thunder as something large descended.

"Is that the Nemesis?" Jack asked.

"No. Megatron followed us. Was the only ship he had left." Arcee answered.

The vessel which descended from the heavens was unlike anything Jack had ever seen, it's construct appearing both mechanical and organic, long and bulbous. The light which flashed down from it suddenly swept the battlefield, searching. When the light touched Coatzin's body, it stopped. Then there was flash, a small tunnel of light opening up beside her.

"Ground Bridge…" Jack whispered.

From within…something emerged. Almost as large as Jack, dark and writing, encased in robes the color of midnight. The thing loomed over Coatzin, and Jack could almost hear it's words as it spoke.

"…this one. It can be mended. It can serve."

Coatzin's damaged eyes gazed up at the light from the ship, her voice weak, but hopeful. "Primus…? Have you come for me…?

The robed being leaned close, and in the light Jack could see a terrible visage, long tentacles hanging from it's face.

"No…" Arcee whispered. Before Jack could asked her what it was he heard the being speak once more.

"Yes, child. We _are Primus. Your Creator. You will live again. And Serve…"_

_Then the world began to shift, as though everything was being stretched and pulled apart. Hazy. Instinctively Jack reached for Arcee, who held him close in kind. And it was as if both of them were falling. Before it all became darkness, Jack heard the gentle voice which had saved him. Heard what it said, and the words filled him with dread._

_. . ._

_Jack woke fighting against arms that tried to hold him in place. The fear of what he had seen, what he had been told, still fresh in his mind. _

"_Jack!" The girl's voice yelled. "Jack, jeez, knock it off before I have to knock you out!" _

_Eyes wide, Jack looked through entangled arms into a familiar pig tailed face. _

"_Miko?" He asked. _

"_Who else?" She shot back. _

"_What…? _

"_You tell us, knuckle head." She asked angrily, letting him go before punching him in the shoulder. "What you were thinking? You could have died you ass." _

"_Hey, easy Miko." Bulkhead's voice said from outside the isolation room. "Let's just be glad he's not." _

"_Whatever." She said in a huff, rising up from where she had been kneeling. Jack discovered he was lying on the floor of the medical room, beside the box he had used to reach…_

"_Arcee!" He yelled, fighting through a flood of dizziness and nausea to reach her. Standing there beside the bed, monitoring her closely, was Ratchet, the medic sparing a moment to stare daggers at the teen. _

"_She's fine. No thanks to you. When she wakes, if she doesn't knock some sense into you I just might. You could have killed her and yourself with that little stunt."_

"_She's waking up?" Jack asked the medic. _

"_Yes. So it would seem. Her cognitive functions appear normal. And I've found no trace of the virus. In either patient." _

"_Then it worked…" Jack muttered. _

"_What? What worked?" Ratchet demanded. _

"_It's…a long story." Jack offered. _

"_One we would all be quite interested to hear, Jack." Optimus replied from behind him. Turning he found the Prime standing over Coatzin, the Sigma Agent still unresponsive. "Raphael explained to us your intent once you had slipped into the Cognitive link and we were unable to rouse you. However, we could not begin to surmise what was transpiring." _

"_Short version?" Jack answered. "That thing in Coatzin's head is gone. But, I think, it's just the start of something worse." _

"_What do you…? Optimus began before Jack's attention was brought around by Arcee's gasp. Arcee's body shook, her illuminated eyes opening quickly as one would from a startled sleep. She looked about the room, almost in a panic before her gaze came to rest on Jack. _

"_Jack?" She whispered. "I'm here, aren't I?" _

"_We both are. You remember?" _

"_All of it…all of it. It was like…fighting through fog. And then…I couldn't remember. I thought I was somewhere else." She reached out to wrap her fingers about him, pulling him close. "Then I found you. And it started coming back." Jack reached out in kind, placing his hands on each side of her face, he put his brow against hers. _

"_I knew it would. And I knew I'd find you. I'll always find you." _

_She laughed, and it was a beautiful sound. "Jack…." Then she kissed him. _

_Several sets of eyes, both Human and Cybertronian, looked on in stunned silence. After a moment, Ratchet cleared his throat. _

"_Well." The Medic replied with as much professional poise as he could. "That is certainly…unexpected."_

_Miko stared in equal surprise. Then pulled out her cell phone, snapping a picture. _

"_Miko!" Bulkhead protested. _

"_Oh come on! Otherwise I might never believe it." _

_. . ._

"_I believe she's waking up." Ratchet told the group as they stood waiting outside. Jack and Arcee had long since recovered, savoring one another's company while avoiding the curious glances from Miko and Bulkhead. Jack had been surprised to learn, much as Arcee had been, from Ratchet that neither had been unconscious for more then an hour. Jack had stood in disturbed silence. _

_The dream his mind had created had been so complex, the events occurring seemingly over the course of three days, yet had, in the real world, transpired in only a short time. He knew dreams could often work that way, seemingly forever in a day, but the truth of it had left him cold inside. Worse, he had yet been able to speak to Optimus about what he had learned. _

_But, that would wait in light of what was happening now._

_Within the isolation room Optimus stood beside Coatzin, waiting patiently. After a few moments the former assassin's eyes slowly opened. Her gaze searched the room, then fell on the Prime. She smiled. _

"_I…know your face." She said weakly. _

"_And I yours." Optimus told her gently. _

"_Why can't I…move?" While Ratchet had offered to speak, Optimus had insisted that he be the one to say what was required. _

"_You were stricken with an illness. One against which you fought with great strength. You are rid of it now. However…"_

"_I am…dying." She said matter of factly, with only the smallest hint of remorse in her voice. _

"_Your Spark has grown too weak. We have done all that can be done, but we can not reignite it's flame once more." _

"_Because I was…not meant…to come back." She told him gently. _

"_I do not believe that to be so." Optimus answered. _

"_You…always believed…in the impossible, my love." _

"_Because you gave me the strength to do so." _

"_No. It was there…long before out paths crossed." She smiled. "I would touch your face…if I could."_

_Without hesitating Optimus gathered Coatzin's hand in his, raising in to be held against his polymer cheek._

"_Better?" He asked. _

"_Yes." She managed to nod. She was quiet for a moment, the light in her eyes seeming to dim slightly, before she looked to him again. "I was…trapped. Nightmares that I could not bring to their end. It was a terrible thing…to be a prisoner in one's own dreams." _

"_If I could have taken it upon myself to deliver you from it…"_

"_I would have…been angry with you. Just as…before, you are too important to risk for…the sake of one…" _

"_On this, I think, we will never agree." _

"_And that…is why…I love you." Beside the bed, the monitors began to beep far more slowly. _

"_I do not wish you to go." Optimus told her. _

"_I was…gone…long ago. This…was never real. It's was a dream…and a prison…of guilt. Do not weep for me…love…for I die…free." _

_The monitor beeped once more, then was silent. Optimus would stand beside the bed for some time. No one would disturb him. _

_. . . _

_In the wake of Coatzin's funeral, Optimus having taken her remains to an unknown place somewhere on the planet where none would ever find her, the Prime at last sat with Arcee and Jack, the pair relating the events which had transpired within Jack's mind. _

"_I'm still not really clear on how, exactly, two sets of Cybertronian memories and consciousnesses ended up in my head, but it wasn't until Primus, or whatever it was, spoke to me that I realized what was happening. After that, it was just a matter of waking up." Jack mulled something over in silence for a moment. _

"_When I was little, after my dad…well, when he was gone I had a lot of falling dreams. They always woke me up, made me jump out of my skin. The voice must have looked into my mind and seen that. When it told me to fall, well, the pieces fell into place." _

"_I am curious as to how the virus could be transferred to Jack's mind, yet not effect him and, subsequently, be destroyed."_

"_I believe the virus was, itself, some form of higher consciousness. As such, it would consist of electrical patterns much like a human mind or a Cybertronian Positronic net. All merely electrical impulses. Through the cognitive relay those electrical impulses were transferred into Jack's mind where his subconscious created a dreamscape to facilitate them." Ratchet looked over the medical data he had collected. _

"_It's quite fascinating actually, and could lend credit to the theory that, at one time, Cybertronian minds where more organic then cybernetic._

"_Perhaps." Optimus mused. "However, there is far more to this then meets the eye. If this virus was not a creation of the Ancients, then from where did it stem." _

_Arcee and Jack exchanged haunted glances. After a moment, Arcee spoke. "The virus was created by Ancients, in a way. Just not Cybertronian ones." _

"_What then?" Ratchet asked. _

"_Optimus." Jack replied. "You already know. I think you knew from the beginning. That's why my dream version of you pointed me to the Primus Spark. On some level I knew that's what would lead me to the answer. The wisdom of the Primes." _

"_Indeed." Optimus said, pacing to the center of the operations room. "I had my fears, and hoped they would be proven false." _

"_They weren't." Arcee said. "And now we've got a danger out there far greater then anything the Decepticons could hope to be." _

"_Would someone please tell me what is being discussed here?" Ratchet requested sternly. _

_Optimus turned to regard them all. "The Quintessons. Cybertron's ancient enemy." _

"_What?" Ratchet exclaimed with a laugh. "That's not possible. They were destroyed long ago." _

"_No, my friend. I have the wisdom of the Primes within my spark, and I know beyond doubt that they were beaten, but not destroyed." _

"_By the All-Spark." Ratchet whispered. _

"_It's worse." Jack said quietly. _

"_What's worse, Jack?" Arcee asked him. _

"_Before we woke up, after seeing that memory of Coatzin's, I heard the voice, Primus's voice, one more time. He told me something, and it's been burned in my brain ever since." _

"_What did Primus impart to you Jack?" _

"_Just three words." Jack said, his face somewhat pale. "They are coming." _

_The End. _


End file.
